tax decrease

meijin

meijin

Senior Member
Tokyo
Japanese
Hi, let's say your government has just decided to increase or decrease one of your consumption taxes (e.g. sales tax in the US), and you ask your friend "What do you think about the tax ________?"

To me, "increase", "hike", "cut", and "reduction" all sound idiomatic, but for some reason "decrease" doesn't. "Rise" is probably a little odd in AmE.

I've just searched Ngram Viewer with "a tax ______" using these words and, as I expected, "a tax rise" and "a tax decrease" are the bottom 2.

Ngram Viewer result

I can see why "a tax rise" is uncommon, because I don't think I've ever heard "a tax fall". But I wonder why "a tax decrease", which is just the opposite of "a tax increase" (which is in second place after "a tax cut" in the Ngram Viewer result), is uncommon. Is it because it just doesn't sound right?
 
    • "Tax decrease" sounds fine to me. It certainly isn't as common as "tax reduction", as your ngram shows, but it fits the question you want to ask.
     
    Raise and lower are commonly used in the U.S. Politicians promise lower taxes and to not raise taxes. They don't promise a tax decrease or even often a tax cut (in those words). They more often use cut as a verb. They might promise to cut taxes or cut taxes on a specific thing.

    We definitely don't commonly use the term tax rise.

    With all those other possible ways to say it, tax decrease just doesn't make the top list.

    Are you in favor of lower taxes?
    Are you in favor of lowering the tax on...

    Would be much more common questions than:

    Are you in favor of a tax decrease?
    Are you in favor of decreasing the tax on...
     
    kentix said:
    They don't promise a tax decrease or even often a tax cut (in those words). They more often use cut as a verb.
    Click to expand...
    So...if they had decided to cut one of the taxes and if you wanted to ask your friend "What do you think about the tax _______ they just announced?" What noun would you use in the underlined part? Cut? Reduction?
     
    Here's a famous excerpt from a speech given by presidential candidate Walter Mondale in 1984. He was running for president against Ronald Reagan.

    "By the end of my first term, I will reduce the Reagan budget deficit by two thirds. Let's tell the truth. It must be done, it must be done. Mr. Reagan will raise taxes, and so will I. He won't tell you. I just did."

    He didn't say increase. He said raise. The "opposite partner" of raise is lower, not decrease.

    Here's an excerpt from Donald Trump's campaign.

    "The Trump Plan will lower the business tax rate from 35 percent to 15 percent, and eliminate the corporate alternative minimum tax"

    Lower, not decrease. Even reduce is more common than decrease in language about taxes in the U.S. (in my experience).

    "What do you think about the tax reduction?"
     
    kentix said:
    He didn't say increase. He said raise. The "opposite partner" of raise is lower, not decrease.
    Click to expand...
    What about when the tax is the subject of the sentence? Aren't "The tax increased from X% to X%" or "The tax went up from X% to X%..." more natural than "The tax was raised from..." or "The tax rose from..."?

    Similarly, isn't "The tax decreased from..." or "The tax went down from..." more natural than "The tax lowered from..."?
     
    I have no issue with which verbs are used but meijin was looking for nouns :) "tax lowering" is unlikely, as is "tax raise" (although pay raise/rise are not uncommon)
     
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