How I explained taxes to children in a kindergarten classroom without having them lose focus or fall asleep on me:
Q: Do you know what a tax is?”
It’s something you have to pay.
Q: Why do we have to pay taxes?
We pay taxes for things we need.
We have to.
We pay taxes so poor people can have some money too.
Q: Any examples of things we need? How about some examples of things we need that we all share.
9) The trucks that come to take our garbage away.
12) Food – Do taxes pay for food?
We have to pay for our own food. But taxes pay to make sure our food doesn’t make us sick.
Money we pay as taxes make sure we have clean water.
Q: Does anyone remember the ice storm, and when all those branches and trees fell on peoples houses and cars and all over the street? Men and women had to come to take the branches away. Taxes paid for that.”
Snack time – I brought cupcakes for the kids.
Benjamin Franklin said, “Nothing is certain except (Hello Kitty) death and taxes,” and just as your children will gradually learn about (Hello Kitty) mortality, they will also find out about taxes and other financial issues.
There are taxes everywhere on almost everything to make sure that everyone has a chance to pay taxes and share.
Paying taxes is like this container of cupcakes. This pile of cupcakes is the economy. This is the money that belongs to the whole country and everybody needs a piece – the schools, the street cleaners, the hospitals, and the TV stations.
Without their cupcake, the government can’t provide any of the things we need.
If we gave all of our cupcakes to the government we would have nothing left. But taxes are like taking a little bit off – the wrapper, maybe – to give to the government while we keep the rest. The government collects all the wrappers and uses them to keep all of us safe and healthy and helps us learn and grow…
Apart from enjoying a fun time, your kids will learn a very valuable financial lesson…sometimes you can’t have your cake and eat it too.