Question 1 Does a fair tax exist? Is a progressive tax better than a proportional tax? These are difficult questions since taxes affect people in different household situations in different ways. Three criteria used in assessing the fairness of taxes are benefits received, ability to pay, and the payment burden. Benefits Received · The fairness criterion states that people should pay taxes in proportion to the benefits they receive from the government. · An example is the use of gasoline taxes and driver’s license fees for road construction and repairs. · Equitable as the benefits-received criterion may seem, it is very difficult to implement. Ability to Pay · A commonly accepted criterion of tax fairness is that individuals with different amounts of wealth or income should pay different amounts of taxes. · Supporters of ability to pay usually argue that high tax bills hurt the rich less than the poor. This argument is the basis for the progressive tax, in which tax rates increase as the level of taxable income increases. The federal income tax is a progressive tax. · In a proportional tax, or flat tax, a constant tax rate is applied to all levels of the tax base. Many state and local income taxes are examples of proportional taxes. · Some proportional taxes may seem fair, but in fact they penalize people in low income groups. For example, when all individuals are charged sales tax on food, low income people who use a larger portion of their incomes for necessities, pay a greater percentage of their total income for sales tax than people with higher incomes pay. A regressive tax of this kind involves taxes that decrease, as a portion of income, as the tax base increases and tend to place a heavier burden on the poor. For this reason, many states do not tax sales of food and medications. Payment Burden · Many people believe only individuals pay taxes. Although businesses pay property and income taxes, some observers contend that these taxes are passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices. · We pay many indirect taxes of this kind. In addition to those just mentioned, a portion of building owners’ real estate taxes are paid by tenants as part of their rent. · In contrast, direct taxes cannot be passed on to someone else. Property taxes paid by homeowners and income taxes paid by individuals are examples of direct taxes. Does a fair tax exist? Would you rather pay a tax directly or indirectly? Is a progressive tax better than a proportional tax? What is your opinion? Question 2 Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of installing a defined benefit pension plan.  Question 3 Discuss the implications of using life insurance to fund a qualified plan relative to the incidental death benefit test.  Question 4 Discuss the types of pension and welfare plans that are exempt from ERISA regulations.  Question 5 Discuss situation in which an employer might want to implement an age-weighted plan.  Question 6 Discuss the similarities and dif ...

1. Question 1
Does a fair tax exist? Is a progressive tax better than a
proportional tax? These are difficult questions since taxes affect
people in different household situations in different ways. Three
criteria used in assessing the fairness of taxes are benefits
received, ability to pay, and the payment burden.
Benefits Received
· The fairness criterion states that people should pay taxes in
proportion to the benefits they receive from the government.
· An example is the use of gasoline taxes and driver’s license
fees for road construction and repairs.
· Equitable as the benefits-received criterion may seem, it is
very difficult to implement.
Ability to Pay
· A commonly accepted criterion of tax fairness is that
individuals with different amounts of wealth or income should
pay different amounts of taxes.
· Supporters of ability to pay usually argue that high tax bills
hurt the rich less than the poor. This argument is the basis for
the progressive tax, in which tax rates increase as the level of
taxable income increases. The federal income tax is a
progressive tax.
· In a proportional tax, or flat tax, a constant tax rate is applied
to all levels of the tax base. Many state and local income taxes
are examples of proportional taxes.
· Some proportional taxes may seem fair, but in fact they
penalize people in low income groups. For example, when all
individuals are charged sales tax on food, low income people
who use a larger portion of their incomes for necessities, pay a
greater percentage of their total income for sales tax than
people with higher incomes pay. A regressive tax of this kind
involves taxes that decrease, as a portion of income, as the tax
base increases and tend to place a heavier burden on the poor.
For this reason, many states do not tax sales of food and

2. medications.
Payment Burden
· Many people believe only individuals pay taxes. Although
businesses pay property and income taxes, some observers
contend that these taxes are passed on to consumers in the form
of higher prices.
· We pay many indirect taxes of this kind. In addition to those
just mentioned, a portion of building owners’ real estate taxes
are paid by tenants as part of their rent.
· In contrast, direct taxes cannot be passed on to someone else.
Property taxes paid by homeowners and income taxes paid by
individuals are examples of direct taxes.
Does a fair tax exist? Would you rather pay a tax directly or
indirectly? Is a progressive tax better than a proportional tax?
What is your opinion?
Question 2
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of installing a
defined benefit pension plan.
Question 3
Discuss the implications of using life insurance to fund a
qualified plan relative to the incidental death benefit test.
Question 4
Discuss the types of pension and welfare plans that are exempt
from ERISA regulations.
Question 5
Discuss situation in which an employer might want to
implement an age-weighted plan.
Question 6
Discuss the similarities and differences between Section 401(k)
plans and other qualified profit sharing plans.

3. Question 7
Discuss ways in which contributions from higher-income
employees may be limited.
Question 8
Discuss ways in which Keogh plans are different from other
qualified plans. Include any implications of a plan covering
non-employee self-employed individuals.
Question 9
Discuss SEP contributions from both the employee and
employer perspectives.
Question 10
Discuss when it would be appropriate to implement a non-
qualified deferred compensation plan, and what benefits would
be achieved by doing so.
LITERATURE REVIEW ASSIGNMENT (DUE WEEK 3)
This assignment will help you to achieve the following Course
Objectives:
· describe the role of culture in health, illness, and healing and
medical anthropology's contributions to individual and public
health in domestic and international contexts
· describe the local and global political, social, and economic
factors that influence individual and public health to shape
programs and policies
Your Literature Review is an "authentic assessment." It asks
you to complete tasks that anthropologists actually perform.
*The Literature Review assignment is worth 15% of your
overall grade. See the Course Schedule for Due Dates.
Among the critical skills an anthropologist (or any scientist)
must have is the ability to understand, analyze, critically

4. evaluate, and use the work of other scholars.
In this assignment, each student will summarize cross-cultural
research findings in anthropology journals on ONE (1)
health/illness-related issue of interest to him/her and then
describe how the articles contribute to a cross-cultural
understanding of the topic, comparing and contrasting the
articles’ findings as appropriate. For example, if you or
someone in your household had a cold; you would look for
articles about colds or, more broadly, acute respiratory
infections in different groups of people. Perhaps you or
someone in your household is a vegetarian for health-related
reasons; you would look for articles about vegetarianism, or
more broadly, eating and health in cross-cultural perspective,
that is, in different groups of people. This doesn’t just mean
different ethnic groups. People in the same family with the same
ethnic heritage may have many different culturally constructed
ideas about eating and health.
*NOTE* There is no formal page length requirement. This
assignment is as long as it needs to be for you to adequately
address the requirements as stated in this description. However,
to clarify, and as the SAMPLES indicate, most strong
submissions range anywhere between 4 to 6 or so pages. Try not
to focus so much on page length. Instead, direct your attention
to adequately addressing the specific
requirements and tasks asked of you for this assignment.
**A minimum of FIVE (5) separate and distinct references from
anthropological journals are required. Use the UMUC library
databases (for example, Social Science Citation Index and
Anthrosource) to find relevant journal articles on your topic
(See below for names of some journals).
You may include more than five references and you may use
references from journals that are not on the list of anthropology
journals, but at least five of your references must be written
from an anthropological perspective and published in at least
one of the journals listed above. References should be cited

5. within the paper and at the end of the paper using proper APA
citation practices.
For additional information regarding APA citation please refer
to the “APA Citation Help” link in the Webliography under
“Course Resources.”
In your Literature Review you must demonstrate the following:
1) Identify the research questions the author(s) investigated in
this study (What does the author want to know?)
2) Summarize the previous research the author(s) reviewed
3) Detail the methods the author(s) used to collect data
4) Summarize the results of the study
5) Discuss the implications of the study for the health/illness-
related issue the study How can these findings be used to
improve health?
6) List any limitations to the study the author(s) acknowledges
or that you identify
7) List future studies suggested by this study and your own
suggestions
Use the UMUC library databases (for example, Social Science
Citation Index) to find relevant journal articles on your topic.
Some major anthropology journals are listed below:
· Anthropology and Medicine
· Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry*
· Curare*
· Global Change and Human Health*
· Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
· Journal of Ethnopharmacology
· Medical Anthropology Quarterly
· Medical Anthropology: Cross-Cultural Studies in Health and
Illness
· Social Science and Medicine*
· Human Organization

6. LITERATURE REVIEW ASSIGNMENT (DUE WEEK 3)
This assignment will help you to achieve the following Course
Objectives:
·
describe the role of culture in health, illness, and healing and
medical ant
hropology's
contributions to individual and public health in domestic and
international contexts
·
describe the local and global political, social, and economic
factors that influence individual and
public health to shape programs and policies
Your Literatur
e Review is an "authentic assessment." It asks you to complete
tasks that
anthropologists actually perform.
*The Literature Review assignment is worth 15% of your
overall grade
. See the Course
Schedule for Due Dates.
Among the critical skills an anthropol
ogist (or any scientist) must have is the ability to understand,
analyze, critically evaluate, and use the work of other scholars.

7. In this assignment, each student will
summarize
cross
-
cultural research findings in anthropology
journals on
ONE (1) health/
illness
-
related issue of interest
to him/her and then describe how the
articles contribute to a cross
-
cultural understanding of the topic, comparing and contrasting
the
articles’ findings as appropriate. For example, if you or
someone in your household h
ad a cold
;
you
would look for articles about colds or, more broadly, acute
respiratory infections in different groups of
people. Perhaps you or someone in your household is a
vegetarian for health
-
related reasons
;
you
would look for articles about vegetar
ianism, or more broadly, eating and health in cross
-
cultural

8. perspective, that is, in different groups of people.
This doesn’t just mean different ethnic groups.
People in the same family with the same ethnic heritage may
have many different culturally
c
onstructed ideas about eating and health.
*NOTE*
There is
no formal page length requirement
. This assignment is as long as it needs to be
for you to adequately address the requirements as stated in this
description.
However
, to clarify, and
as the SAMPLES
indicate, most strong submissions range anywhere between 4 to
6 or so pages.
Try not to focus so much on page length. Instead, direct your
attention to
adequately
addressing
the
specific requirements
and
tasks

9. asked of you for this assignment.
**A
minimum
of FIVE (5) separate and distinct references from
anthropological journals are
required.
Use the UMUC library databases (for example, Social Science
Citation Index and
Anthrosource) to find relevant journal articles on your topic
(See below for names of s
ome journals).
You may include more than five references and you may use
references from journals that are not
on the list of anthropology journals, but
at least
five
of your references must be written from an
anthropological perspective and
published in a
t least one of the journals listed above
.
References should be cited within the paper and at the end of
the paper using
proper APA citation

10. practices.
For additional information regarding APA citation please refer
to the “APA Citation Help” link in the
Webliography under “Course Resources.”
In your Literature Review you
must
demonstrate the following:
1) Identify the research questions the author(s) investigated in
this study (What does the author want
to know?)
2) Summarize the previous research the a
uthor(s) reviewed
LITERATURE REVIEW ASSIGNMENT (DUE WEEK 3)
This assignment will help you to achieve the following Course
Objectives:
medical anthropology's
contributions to individual and public health in domestic and
international contexts
factors that influence individual and
public health to shape programs and policies
Your Literature Review is an "authentic assessment." It asks
you to complete tasks that
anthropologists actually perform.
*The Literature Review assignment is worth 15% of your

11. overall grade. See the Course
Schedule for Due Dates.
Among the critical skills an anthropologist (or any scientist)
must have is the ability to understand,
analyze, critically evaluate, and use the work of other scholars.
In this assignment, each student will summarize cross-cultural
research findings in anthropology
journals on ONE (1) health/illness-related issue of interest to
him/her and then describe how the
articles contribute to a cross-cultural understanding of the topic,
comparing and contrasting the
articles’ findings as appropriate. For example, if you or
someone in your household had a cold; you
would look for articles about colds or, more broadly, acute
respiratory infections in different groups of
people. Perhaps you or someone in your household is a
vegetarian for health-related reasons; you
would look for articles about vegetarianism, or more broadly,
eating and health in cross-cultural
perspective, that is, in different groups of people. This doesn’t
just mean different ethnic groups.
People in the same family with the same ethnic heritage may
have many different culturally
constructed ideas about eating and health.
*NOTE* There is no formal page length requirement. This
assignment is as long as it needs to be
for you to adequately address the requirements as stated in this
description. However, to clarify, and
as the SAMPLES indicate, most strong submissions range
anywhere between 4 to 6 or so pages.
Try not to focus so much on page length. Instead, direct your
attention to adequately
addressing the specific requirements and tasks asked of you for
this assignment.

12. **A minimum of FIVE (5) separate and distinct references from
anthropological journals are
required. Use the UMUC library databases (for example, Social
Science Citation Index and
Anthrosource) to find relevant journal articles on your topic
(See below for names of some journals).
You may include more than five references and you may use
references from journals that are not
on the list of anthropology journals, but at least five of your
references must be written from an
anthropological perspective and published in at least one of the
journals listed above.
References should be cited within the paper and at the end of
the paper using proper APA citation
practices.
For additional information regarding APA citation please refer
to the “APA Citation Help” link in the
Webliography under “Course Resources.”
In your Literature Review you must demonstrate the following:
1) Identify the research questions the author(s) investigated in
this study (What does the author want
to know?)
2) Summarize the previous research the author(s) reviewed