Is America Financially Illiterate? The Numbers Are Alarming

Is America Financially Illiterate? The Numbers Are Alarming

From The Deduction by Tax Foundation

April 28, 2026 · 20 min

About this episode

The episode discusses the alarming levels of financial illiteracy among Americans and features insights from a national survey on tax literacy.

Most Americans don't understand how the tax code works, and it's costing them. In this episode of The Deduction, host Kyle Hulehan sits down with Zoe Callaway, VP of Education at Tax Foundation, to talk about tax and financial literacy in America. They dig into the results of Tax Foundation's national survey on tax literacy, the most stubborn misconceptions people have about taxes (including one that nearly made a teacher turn down her own promotion), and what's happening in high school class...

People in this episode

Host: Kyle Hulehan

Guest: Zoe Callaway

Topics covered

  • financial literacy
  • tax code
  • education
  • misconceptions
  • national survey

Keywords

  • financial literacy
  • tax code
  • Tax Foundation
  • education
  • misconceptions
  • national survey
  • high school

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Tax Foundation

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