Almost 6 in 10 still say taxes too high: Gallup

A new poll found that most Americans say they pay too much in taxes, a metric that has remained high for the fifth year in a row.

Gallup’s poll released Friday shows that nearly 6 in 10 Americans, or 59 percent, said their taxes are too high. A slightly smaller portion at 37 percent said their taxes are about right, and 3 percent said they think their taxes are too low.

“Americans’ views of their taxes have remained near their most negative levels in two decades for the past three years, both in perceptions of the amount paid and whether it is fair,” the polling firm stated.

The latest poll is the fifth time where more than 50 percent of Americans said they think they are paying too much in taxes. In 2022, 54 percent agreed with this, followed by 60 percent in 2023, 56 percent in 2024 and 59 percent in 2025.

Gallup determined these numbers to be high compared to the roughly 50-percent average during the early 2000s. This was due to the first tax cut passed under former President George W. Bush. At the time, “the percentage saying taxes are too high fell from 65% to 47%, while people’s belief that their taxes are fair increased from 51% to 64%,” according to Gallup.

The polling firm noted that despite the negative views toward taxes since 2022, these numbers are still below the levels seen between the 1970s and 1990s, when more than 60 percent of respondents said taxes were “too high.”

The poll also found that 47 percent of Americans said the income tax they will have to pay is fair. Positive sentiment toward taxes is close to the record low of 45 percent in 1999. Those who said their taxes are not fair sits at 49 percent, 2 points away from the 51 percent record high from 2023.

Gallup found that the views of registered voters who said their taxes are too high have also shifted. Most Republicans, at 60 percent, agreed with this sentiment, along with 64 percent of independents and 49 percent of Democrats.

The number of independents who believe their taxes are too high has been consistent since 2023. For Republicans, there has been a decline after peaking at 71 percent in 2025. The number of Democrats holding the same view increased from 39 percent.

Gallup estimated that “some of the 2025 tax changes, such as exempting tip income and providing an enhanced tax deduction for seniors, will have a greater impact on public opinion about taxes as more people file their returns this month.”

“However, with the Iran war pushing up gas and other consumer prices, Americans’ eroding purchasing power may matter more to perceptions than whatever relief they get from Uncle Sam,” Gallup added.

The Gallup survey was conducted March 2-18 and included 1,000 respondents. The margin of error is 6 percentage points.