A lot of banter and news press about taxes. Especially taxation on the "rich". But what is "fair"? Is 30% fair? 40%? 60%? 75%? And what about states and local taxes as well on top of federal taxes? So, it total, should a person characterized as "rich" pay a total of 90%? And what is "wealthy"? Is it $100K per year? $250K? $500K? $1 million? $5 million? And what about people who have $1 million in investments or the bank or a 401K. Is that not being rich? Should they have to give up a percentage of that money every year? Is that fair? I mean, there are people who do not have a 401K or investments. So what is fair in all this?
http://www.bankrate.com/finance/taxes/top-1-percent-earn.aspx The 1.4 million Americans in the IRS' top taxpayer category in 2009 reported nearly 17 percent of all the country's taxable income. From those filers, the IRS collected $318 billion or almost 37 percent of all the individual taxes paid in 2009.
Nobody's talking about payroll taxes, tho the govt has cut those for the last year+. I'm quite sure Buffett and his secretary both paid the max and will not get much to show for it.
So? The debate over progressive taxation of income ended over 100 years ago. Progressive taxation won. The debate is over how progressive. The fact that high income earners paid a big chunk of the taxes is not particularly relevant. They would pay a large portion even under a flat tax, especially now that the middle class in this country has been hollowed out.
HOW EXCESSIVE GOVERNMENT KILLED ANCIENT ROME http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cjv14n2-7.html seems were heading that way
then your example is misleading propaganda, like when fox news talking heads say "half the country doesn't pay taxes" 18 times a day. that's false.
There's no such thing as a payroll tax. There are withholdings to cover people's SS, Medicare, etc. So it is true 1/2 don't pay (income) tax. The top 1% makes 17% if the income and pays ~40% of all the income tax. If the govt takes your money and puts it in a trust fund (SS and Medicare), it's not income tax.
I think it's fair that there is a flat federal tax of 25%; with the ability to write off up to 10% on charities, investment loss and home (interest, insurance and property taxes). That will encourage people to invest and buy homes; which will boost the economy. The people with more money (1%) will use their funds more for investing and giving to charities; which will only boost the economy. The bullshit that some people making less than 20k, don't have to pay a lick of income tax. If they even paid 15%; our government economy would increase drastically. But whatever assholes. Just mooch off those that worked hard to get tons of money. Let them assume all the liability and pay the highest tax to be that 1%. LOL
federal (and state) income taxes withheld from paychecks are considered part of payroll taxes. "the 50% don't pay any federal income tax" thing spread by FNC for propaganda purposes conveniently ignores all the income tax people are paying through payroll taxes. i think the actual number that don't have to pay is closer to 17%. i don't really give a crap about the actual issue here, i just hate propaganda.
