And with tax reform back on the national agenda, those misperceptions matter.

Who pays taxes in the U.S.?

In a survey I conducted in 2014 of 1,000 U.S. adults, 88 percent of respondents answered “yes” to the question, “Are you a taxpayer?” But when asked what percentage of U.S. adults are taxpayers, these same respondents typically estimated 66.5 percent.

Many Americans think that they themselves are taxpayers, but think a lot of others are not. I call this mismatch the “taxpayer gap.”

Statistics can mislead. As the cliche implies, taxes are almost as unavoidable as death. Basically any interaction with the economy — working, owning property, putting gas in your car, shopping at the store — involves paying taxes. Almost every American adult engages in at least a few of these activities.

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Lower-income people, who tend to pay less federally, pay a much larger percentage of their income in state and local taxes than do higher-income people.

Why is the public so confused about taxpayers?

One source may be the statistic popularized a few years ago, most prominently by GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, that 47 percent of tax-filing households have no net federal income tax liability. While accurate, this is often misremembered as applying to taxes in general, implying that there is a substantial “non-taxpaying class.”

In my survey research, I have found that Republicans are much more likely than Democrats to estimate the taxpaying population at around 50 percent. A third of Republicans pick an estimate between 40 and 60 percent, compared to only a fifth of Democrats. On average, Republicans thought about 62 percent of the U.S. adult population pays taxes — but even among Democratic respondents, the average estimate of the taxpaying population was 71 percent of U.S. adults.

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How Americans pay taxes also leads to confusion. Filing federal taxes is a cumbersome, frustrating annual experience for many — and so that’s what they think of as “paying taxes.” But other taxes are often less obvious, bundled into prices at the store or gas pump, included in a mortgage payment, or deducted from a paycheck without much effort or attention.

Tax misperceptions matter

Margaret Levi, a political scientist at Stanford, has argued people are willing to fulfill their civic responsibilities if they think others are doing their part — a sentiment she calls “ethical reciprocity.” Economists agree that “tax morale” — their term for the shared cultural norm of taxpaying — plays an important role in tax compliance. If we doubt that others are chipping in, we are more likely to start free-riding ourselves.

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Moreover, the public rhetoric about who is a “taxpayer” reinforces stereotypes about who works hard and contributes to the community.

Most Americans imagine that recent immigrants get more in government benefits than they pay in; the reality is very different. Undocumented immigrants, in particular, are often presumed to not pay taxes — but are paying billions into Social Security and Medicare, even though they are not eligible to get anything back.

There is also a class bias at work in the popular definition of a “taxpayer.” Low-income people are less likely to describe themselves as taxpayers — even if they work and own a home. Interviews with some of my survey respondents confirmed that their idea of a taxpayer was a well-off working person — someone making “a decent salary,” as one New Jersey woman put it.

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While most Americans believe the wealthy should be paying more in taxes, a small but increasing percentage of Americans believe that low-income people are not paying enough taxes, either. It’s ironic that low-income taxpayers are invisible. If there’s a class of persons who aren’t paying much in taxes, it is corporate “persons,” not real human people working, shopping and living in the U.S.

Being a taxpayer makes you a member in one of the most inclusive of clubs. This Tax Day, spare a thought for all the taxes you pay, and all the taxpayers who are chipping in with you.