No one ever went bankrupt from income tax. Property taxes don't suddenly jump an order of magnitude. An unexpected user fee is almost always a rare event like a broken water pipe or a bad meter and can often be negotiated with the utility.
People have absolutely gone bankrupt from income tax. Let's say you receive a large amount of income in the form of an asset which is suddenly devalued before you sell it. You owe income tax on the original value you received. But the stock is now worthless, so you have nothing you can sell to pay your income tax.
This used to happen with ISOs during the dot-com bust. It can still happen with other volatile instruments, like cryptocurrency.
You're right, but that's pretty exceptional and I feel like something you really ought to know is a potential scenario. (I was aware of it at least as someone with stock options throughout 1999-2013.) This is different in kind than a medical expense which can happen to anyone randomly and bankrupt even those who thought they were insured against it.
I think I have very good medical insurance through my employer and I'm still terrified an unforeseen medical expense will somehow bankrupt me.
People don’t declare bankruptcy for tax debt largely because federal taxes aren’t dischargeable in bankruptcy. But tons of people lose, for example, their homes due to tax related financial problems.
