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Is The Middle Class Really Carrying The Tax Burden? A Contrarian View On "No Shared Sacrifice"
There has been much discussion lately about whether the US middle class is being unfairly penalized and carrying the burden of a tax regime that benefits the uber-wealthy. While that may certainly be the case on some statistical basis, especially if a literal handful of people account for the bulk of the income, thus skewing the median and the mean representation (a topic extensively analyzed in Nassim Taleb's Black Swan), below we present two charts that come straight from the IRS which show that talk of "no shared sacrifice" is largely unfounded. The first chart looks at the effective tax rate by income cohort; the second, and far more dramatic hockeystick chart, demonstrates the number of people paying no income tax. The results are, to say the least, quite surprising.
First, effective tax rate by income bucket:
Second, and even more surprising, the percentage of filers paying no income tax.
Charts courtesy of John Poehling
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Yeah, maybe, but there is something so damn medieval about pitchforks! Maybe find an iron maiden, too!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agaHP0eQHmU
It's not the income tax, it's the ultra-regressive employment taxes at 15.3%. Then, at the state and local level we have hefty sales taxes and property taxes. Also, state income taxes offer fewer deductions and credits than federal.
Exactly. The income tax is only a part of the factual answer. When you add back property taxes, sales taxes, and the [highly regressive] FICA tax you get a different answer.
Are you sure about that? I see your point definitely but you have to add all taxes in then. For example, I bought a new van a few months ago for $35,000 and just about threw up when I found out the "Registration Fee/Property Tax" was going to be $600 in addition to the bullshit sales tax!
The amount of taxes in our everyday lives now are pervasive. We are taxed on everything.
The "fees" you're talking about are REgressive taxes. Effectively taxing poor people MORE than people who are thriving under the government rules in the current society.
Yes, and worse than that state and local governments are about as bad off as the Federal Gov... so pretty much having a postitive net worth at all is like blood in the water.
in a situation of increasing wealth disparity, income stagnation over many years, one would expect that there would be an increase of those that pay no taxes, because accounting for inflation that number (income) should rise each year. Hence, a ever larger number should fall below threshold.
*** Cough *** Cough Bullshit *** Cough ***
What is Supposed to be Collected verse what is Paid is a WORLD! APART!!
given that 'what is supposed to be collected' is ZERO, I'd say you're correct.
Nobody's balancing the federal budget. Still spending >150% of revenues, and that's counting in the most generous possible way, including even the income of federal enterprises such as the post and TVA.
And what the second chart shows is people falling out of the middle class.
Top 10% of America's farms collect 75% of federal farm subsidies http://www.ewg.org/farmsubsidies
http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/matt-hadro/2011/06/29/anderson-cooper-again-hits-bachmann-over-farm-subsidies-lead-segment-cnn
For the second night in a row, Anderson Cooper opened his regular news cast Tuesday touting a story about Michele Bachmann's hypocrisy in benefitting from federal agriculture subsidies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvf_vXrLZGs
Rockefeller Gets Farm Subsidies From Taxpayers
Top 10 corporations which paid no taxesHere is Sen. Sanders’ list of the 10 worst corporate income tax avoiders:
1) Exxon Mobil made $19 billion in profits in 2009. Exxon not only paid no federal income taxes, it actually received a $156 million rebate from the IRS, according to its SEC filings. (Source: Exxon Mobil’s 2009 shareholder report filed with the SEC here.)
2) Bank of America received a $1.9 billion tax refund from the IRS last year, although it made $4.4 billion in profits and received a bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department of nearly $1 trillion. (Source: Forbes.com here, ProPublica here and Treasury here.)
3) General Electric made $26 billion in profits in the United States over the past five years and, thanks to clever use of loopholes, paid no taxes.(Source: Citizens for Tax Justice here and The New York Times here. Note: despite rumors to the contrary, the Times has stood by its story.)
4) Chevron received a $19 million refund from the IRS last year after it made $10 billion in profits in 2009. (Source: See 2009 Chevron annual report here. Note 15 on page FS-46 of this report shows a U.S. federal income tax liability of $128 million, but that it was able to defer $147 million for a U.S. federal income tax liability of negative $19 million.)
5) Boeing, which received a $30 billion contract from the Pentagon to build 179 airborne tankers, got a $124 million refund from the IRS last year. (Source: Paul Buchheit, professor, DePaul University, here and Citizens for Tax Justice here.)
6) Valero Energy, the 25th largest company in America with $68 billion in sales last year, received a $157 million tax refund check from the IRS and, over the past three years, received a $134 million tax break from the oil and gas manufacturing tax deduction. (Source: the company’s 2009 annual report, pg. 112, here.)
7) Goldman Sachs in 2008 only paid 1.1 percent of its income in taxes even though it earned a profit of $2.3 billion and received an almost $800 billion from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department. (Source: Bloomberg News here, ProPublica here, Treasury Department here.)
8) Citigroup last year made more than $4 billion in profits but paid no federal income taxes. It received a $2.5 trillion bailout from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury. (Source: Paul Buchheit, professor, DePaul University, here, ProPublica here, Treasury Department here.)
9) ConocoPhillips, the fifth largest oil company in the United States, made $16 billion in profits from 2006 through 2009, but received $451 million in tax breaks through the oil and gas manufacturing deduction. (Sources: Profits can be found here. The deduction can be found on the company’s 2010 SEC 10-K report to shareholders on 2009 finances, pg. 127, here.)
10) Carnival Cruise Lines made more than $11 billion in profits over the past five years, but its federal income tax rate during those years was just 1.1 percent. (Source: The New York Times here.)
http://www.greenpartywatch.org/2011/04/30/top-10-corporations-who-paid-no-taxes/
If you leave them (loop)holes, expect the cockroaches to use them.
Yup, it's people falling out of the middle class.
http://www.google.com/search?q=elizabeth+warren+two+income+trap
I don't know how it is in the US, but a consistent pattern that i have noticed about the german middle class, is that among those who own small companies, what they complain the most about to me, is NOT taxes, but instead that the business environment becomes ever more harsh, via:
- Profit collapse: Buying power of consumers goes down, yet buying prices for goods go up as well as running costs.
- Difficulty to compete with large outlet chains who mass-import goods.
I always appreciate seeing what goes on (in the different countries of) Europe. Thanks for passing along news we do not see much of. Yet, Europe and the USA are pretty much joined at the hip. We are in the same boat.
+ 100
It's easier just to bitch and moan about taxes, than to look deeper into what the systemic issues really are. Too bad we Americans can't export bitching and moaning, we'd have that trade deficit balanced in no time.
To those who complain about how hard it is to start a business - you can get a "DBA" (Doing Business As) name with a couple simple forms and an ad in a local newspaper. Takes about a day's worth of work. With that, you can set up a checking account under that name and start taking money. Not that fucking hard.
Yes, it is very easy to create the "business" on paper and have a dba for it... now get all the required permits/lisences/registrations you need to actually RUN the business. Some areas there is just too much red tape to actually get anything going.
Example: I live in a city with a commuter college smack in the middle with roughly 30k students. It would be very easy and profitable to set up a food cart near campus (or maybe on campus, with again the proper permit, which I will probably not be approved for since I would steal their business of selling food to students at 20% markup from the same damn Chic-fil-A two minutes down the road but I'm getting off topic). Alas, in order to run a "Mobile-food operation," as my city codes call it, I have to have an approved commissary to park the unit in overnight, which cannot be my home regardless of how clean and up to par I keep the equipment or if my home meets the criteria for a commissary. When I asked for the citeria of a commissary they could not tell me what that was or find anyone who could get me this info (it is now listed on the cities website hahahahaha). So I just asked for a list of already approved commissaries... again they didn't have it... big surprise. Eventually I gave up.
This is a no brainer operation of making hotdogs/nachos/pizza etc and selling them to college kids. I can clean a piece of equipment just fine and after finally seeing the "commissary" criteria on line, my house does in fact meet the criteria... except the one where it can't be my house. Finally finding these rules I rehashed the idea but the financials just weren't there once I factored in costs of transport to/from the comissary and the comissary fees themselves.
So to recap, I meet all the criteria that actually affect people's health for a comissary, but it's my house so I can't do it. The costs invovled to get a simple idea off the ground LEGALLY are so high it makes it not worth the effort. My take is my city just doesn't want these types of businesses around for whatever reason, so they created laws and ordinances to keep them out.
So yes, it is not that fucking hard to create a busniess and get a dba name and open a bank account... now go actually run the business legally... IT'S PRETTY FUCKING HARD SOMETIMES.
Taxation - they confiscate your wealth [the fruits of your labor] then hand it over to 534 douchebags to piss away, while borrowing more so that your children's future wealth is locked into the same shithole while inflating the currency so what you have left over is worth less and less. How long can this go on?
534? - there is one that is not a douchebag?
My guess is he means Ron and Rand Paul...Rand is not so much a douche so there are 535 and 1/2 douches up there if you count the prezdent and his vice henchman.
Tyler, I'm really surprised you'd post such a simplistic conclusion about how much taxes people pay. The tax rate for each income group is only the start of the calculations for how much each person has to pay. The fact of the matter is that the more money a person makes, the more tax breaks/write-offs exist. It's those tax advantages of the wealthy that allows them to pay tax far below the percent bracket they're in. The article you've posted is not worth reading and as such not worth posting.
Good point.
The uber wealthy also can employ a bank of accountants to make sure they pay the minimum.
You obviouly did not look at the source data. The IRS data shows actual AGI and actual income tax paid, not simply calculating a tax rate based on the tax tables.
fail, you assume that all income is reported. HA HA>
I got NEWS for ya...........just between us good guys, don't believe it.
So what is your point? Which group is likely to report less? The small business owners doing cash transactions or the CEO's?
Anyway, your point is irrelevant as the unreported income is unknown and therefore cannot be quantified one way or another.
if you had ever really earned a lot of money, you'd think otherwise.
+10,000,000
trav, I do make a lot of money...a LOT of money, that's how I know. We live in a two-tiered society that includes differences in laws that leads to differences in real tax rates. The wealth disparity that is building is going to contribute to the coming social disorder. Simplifying the tax code such as a sales tax, eliminating the income and property taxes is the only way to go in my mind, and with that, the tax advantages of the lucky few will diminish.
When 1% have all the joo-bux they can really complain about the 99% not pulling their own weight. :roll: Abolish the federal reserve billionaire's insurance and profit guarantee corp.
As long as the gravy train continues, votes are secured. Democracy in America is a figment of your imagination.
It's the massive fraud ,theft and bribery that has transfered wealth to the uber-rich . Most of the money was by borrowing and monetizing the debt not by tax.
To become one of the 41.7%:
Quit your job
Give all of your assets to The Little Sisters of the Poor
Limit pension income to below poverty level
Late last week, Thomas James Ball reached his breaking point. Driven to desperation by a system that bankrupted him and destroyed his family, Ball walked up to the main door of the Keene County, New Hampshire courthouse, doused himself with gasoline, and lit himself ablaze.
Read more
http://lonerangersilver.wordpress.com/2011/06/20/new-hampshire-man-light...
Good bump.
Read the story if you haven't - - the guy frickin' lit himself on fire to be heard.
fool.
99% of the sheep will be looking to see if he left anything of worth behind.
Ipad,52inch,world of warcraft you know , the essentials.
The USofA has more shocking crap than that on the daily tv schedule and
the goofs over here can not be pulled off the couch while judge judy or
or law and order (usa perverts on parade) or 48hours or retard cops in la is on.
Meanwhile, Geithner holds a gun to Obamas head and yells 'Hand over the $2 trillion free check or this &%$$a gets it'!
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/07/us-usa-debt-exclusive-idUSTRE7...
Misleading. Ex-unemployed, the 41.7% contribute substantially toward SS/Medicare receipts, of which we all know gets flipped like hotcakes to the general fund through IOU's. The money is fungible. The rich pay income taxes, the working man pays SS. It all gets sucked up into the void that is the Gov't gen fund.
On an aside IMO the middle class is getting screwed every which way, QE's lead the way in the screwing. Currently the middle class lets this happen, but eventually there will be a backlash. Charts and graphs like these are useless, and perhaps are inflamitory. Tell the 90% at your door with pitch forks that your slate is clean b/c you pay taxes and they don't. What a joke.
What is with all the children who pay no income tax? And the elderly? Even prisoners! It's shameful. From what I've been able to observe the majority of those who pay no income tax do so as a result of having substantial write-offs like a mortgage, multiple children and their healthcare expenses. The average hourly wage in America is $19.42 which includes localities like NY & Frisco . If you can't afford children you should be able to turn them over to Guy Montage and the fireman.
Why is it that people are so concerned with who is and who isn't "paying their share"? Shouldn't we be more concerned with why is the government taking so much?
Silence comrade.
Why do you hate little black babies?
+1 LMAO
Actually, No Shared Sacrifice is just about right.
The uber-wealthy are plugged into the leviathan to such an extent that they can now compound their capital with little or no risk or skill and can evade or afford to pay whatever the IRS lays claim to.
The bottom (almost half) of American wage earners, strapped as they might be in other ways, now pay ZERO fed income taxes (I've seen it closer to 49% vs. 42% here).
So, it's the bottom 42% (using this data) plus the top (say) 8% against the middle/upper middle (and most productive) 50%.
Since the bottom group is vote-powerful and the top group is just plain powerful, guess who the government will be increasingly putting the screws too as they become more insolvent?
Nice work central planners.
+ 100%
American "democracy" has now become:
Three wolves (1 rich, 2 poor) and two middle-class sheep, voting on what's for dinner...
Haha, very nicely put. Sad but true. Its class warfare, and the poor have the most to gain, but in between here and there is a lot of uncertainty, so good luck convincing them to turn on their master, who provides food and shelter!
The unintended consequence of the Bush tax cuts was Obamacare. By removing so many people from the tax rolls, he created demand for unpaid services. It is not necessary to believe, or care, that reform can reduce the cost of health care. What some people rightly know is that their personal cost of health care can be reduced by having others pay for it.
The essence of Obama's rhetoric is "Vote for me. I'll get the rich to give you money."
I'd like to sign up for the no-tax program and I'd also like to apply for the Mortgage-Free Living program.
$500K *is* middle class.
If you don't want to pay income tax, quit your job and live under a bridge. It's a great life.
Or just do the easy thing and don't pay.
what do the American people get for paying into this system? we are so far removed from the days of a standing Army and "America standing like a collossus across the Atlantic." There are no "controlling legal authorities" now in the immortal words of Al Gore. Yet what is our age about that we are enslaved to? Money or power? Wall Street or Washington? I obviously have chosen DC not because I want to (who wouldn't rather choose their 'self') but because in this age of "picking winners" i'm picking mine. If this economy really does start to recover i say it is those who kill the innocent for fun fully acknowledging it is wrong (as in INTENT) that the government has its eye on since never in American history has Wall Street been so beholden to Washington--for its very existence in my view--and of course Wall Street is the better for it. I think DC is too busy right now to ask for anything (including the safety of the public) in return--as it should be for these ambitious men. Will Wall Street stop AND LISTEN THEMSELVES FOR A CHANGE and not wait around and decide it's time to get this economy moving per the Bernank's policies? Is Israel's preferred America one that watches but does nothing? Or Europe's or Japan's? Anywho...c'est la mort. I know this much--we can do a 10 million man American overwatch now if need be. This government does have not only the authority but the ability. So let the policy makers decide then...for history can remember us as well and good, too.
THAT'S BULLSHIT!!! So now the IRS is publishing BULLSHIT and Zero Hedge is believing it? Come'on, BLOW ME!!! Those statistics are just so much BULLSHIT I"m at a loss for words other than the very obvious BULLSHIT!!! Does anyone really believe this SHIT? 47% of American's don't end up paying an income tax? BULLSHIT!!!
Just look at the two fucking charts. Justify those two charts together. BULLSHIT!!! That's right, BULLSHIT!!! It's staring you in the face because they make no sense together as they counterdict one another,... and yes Virginia,.... that's BULLSHIT!!!
Uh, this has been a much discussed reality for a couple years now actually. Feel free to play around with a 1040 form and see for yourself. I'm afraid you're full of bullshit (and the chart says 41.7 not 47 there ace).
This is a classic example of misframing a discussion. The middle class shoulders a disproportionate share of taxes through consumption, not income. His income is taxed every time he buys gas, uses a telephone, electricity etc. etc. etc.
The purchaser of one pack of Marlboro pays infinitely more tax than the purchaser of 100,00 shares of GE, who will only pay any tax of the transaction when he closes the position, and if he makes money (after deducting other losses).
Basing a discussion of tax policy on income taxes alone completely misses the point.
"Basing a discussion of tax policy on income taxes alone completely misses the point."
It certainly does, thankfully a discussion of tax policy on income is very brief, something like; A tax on labor & production is reprehensible, immoral and ought to be relegated to the dustbin of history along with representative democracy.
But I digress.
I have always thought the liquor tax was unfair.
The purchaser of stocks also pays taxes on dividends. Are you suggesting he pay taxes on unrealized gains? Would the same principal apply to all other capital assets including homes?
You don't seem to understand what you are truly suggesting.
What I am suggesting is that someone who "pays no income tax" still pays lots and lots of taxes.
And yes, I fully support a transaction tax on trading activity. I know all the momos of the world believe that buying a million dollars worth of stock and selling it fourteen seconds later for a .001% gain believe that they are somehow engaged in a productive activity, but I disagree.
Of course if we taxed that activity most of the "fast-money" geniuses would find themselves on food stamps, which is exactly where they belong.
.
Why don't somebody post some charts on the AFTER TAX incomes of Americans in DOLLARS? We're tired of the GWB bullshit way of talking %'s. %'s don't mean shit. They don't buy shit.
Who is "we"?
I am part of that we.
You can create them yourself using the linked IRS spreadsheet.
The genius of all this is how the system itself is set up to ensure the serf fight amongst themselves over the scraps. Most posts here about unemployed folks show vividly.
By reading your posts should we would assume most everyone on Unemployment did so for the tax breaks and free ride. They then purposely stay out of work so they can ride the backs of those who still have jobs. Then they do their best to get FREE housing out of the deal too because they are all lowlife scum. ONLY those people who still have jobs should be regarded as good citizens, all the rest are trash and whatever happens to them by the owners of this place is well deserved.
There's no way in hell it could be a flaw in the system, NO WAY By GAWD! This is "Merca, the GREATEST system ever devised. Nope, it's all these freeloaders who are the problem, even though we've seen pile of evidence right here on ZH that the Fed's cyclical, bubble-building policies have created this mess and many of us have no control over it. But hey, keep hating those freeloaders, that exactly what your owners expect of you.
Nothing surprising in these charts at all, if you follow this stuff. The big lie is the notion that there are classes in the U.S.
As others have mentioned, showing only income tax is an incomplete story.
Niggers and jews, niggers and jews. Do you ever have anything else to say? Matters not to you that the majority of the time you babbling is entirely off topic, just as long as you can lay the foundations of the world's problems on any demographic that you don't belong to. Freakin loser, your soul is blacker than any african. Believe or not, one day you will have to answer for every single idle word of vile that you spew, and boy do you have a lot to answer for.
BTW, many great white men have done many great things throughout history, but losers like you love to take the credit for them, while you yourself, have done nothing.
Wow! Let me sit back with my popcorn and watch those who care to respond to this one (which i don't completely disagree with).
http://www.honestmediatoday.com/God_damn_Jews1.htm
... Start that chart from the 1970's and tell me how it looks.
Taxes in general are un-American and unconstitutional.
No FIT until 1913. No property taxes either.
Payroll income CANNOT be taxed according to the Constitution. Prior to 1913, the only real taxes were on PROFIT (i.e. Corporations). Further, corporations used to have to get a charter from the government to continue to do business. The basis of acquiring the charter was that business was "in the public's best interest." All that changed when the banksters took over.
High taxes encourage and enable big government and big spending. Allow a true free market, let Americans keep their money and allow them to inject it freely into said free market. Lower corporate taxes BUT FORCE them to pay what they owe (i.e. no more 0 federal taxes for GE, 1% for Barclays, etc).
But none of this will happen. Fake Republicans and fake tea-partiers like Michelle Bachman and Sarah Palin HATE free markets, as much as they claim to love and embrace them. As long as the US government continues its corporate welfare the ship will continue to sink.
But again, like many ZHers have said before. Just tell yourself that this is all PLANNED and INTENTIONAL and then everything makes sense.
There's a few other points worth making here:
The decline in effective tax rates for lower income brackets is largely due to inflation. The income categories in the chart do not adjust with inflation, but tax brackets and eligibilities for various exemptions do adjust with inflation.
Federal personal income tax is only about one-fifth of all taxes collected in the US by all levels of government.
What little budget-balancing that is being done is happening at the local government, in the form of increases in taxes that mainly hit the lower and middle classes, and cuts in services used more intensively by the lower and middle classes, especially public schools, which also entail elimination of middle-class jobs.
The increased effective tax rates on higher income brackets are mainly a result of NOT balancing the budget. Public deficits feed directly into increased business profits, because deficits create income for consumption which, unlike wages and taxes, doesn't come out of businesses' expenses. This has hugely boosted incomes in higher tax brackets, while also very slightly increasing their effective tax rates.
The problem I have with all these tax analyses are that they cover only Federal, as those are the most available and complete datasets. It is my strong supposition that the overall tax burden on individuals, when accounting for state and local and property taxes has steadily marched higher over the years.
I suspect you are 100% correct. That is my situation, ever higher.
75,000 pages of U.S. Tax code for what purpose and at what cost?
How about reducing it to 14 words:
"All income shall be taxed at a flat rate of 15% with no exceptions."
I am trained as an accountant, and there's nothing that would give me more joy than a fair, simple, equal tax code.
And you are right, a flat tax on income is it. But most people don't like uncertainty, and that goes for accountants as well, so if their specialty is that very same useless tax code we want to replace... They will fight you tooth and nail to keep you from accomplishing something that will benefit all of society, immensely.
In 2009 per the referenced chart data set from the IRS.
Total Taxes paid by people who earned $25K and less, $8,372,973.
Total Taxes Paid by people who earned $25K to $200K, $424,337,305.
Total Taxes Paid by people who earned over $200K, $435,285,868.
Furthermore, the IRS excel worksheet does NOT appear to have a line for "Percentage of of Filers Paying No Income Taxes"..... It does break it down by income bracket... Perhaps you can explain how you obtained the calculations for your second chart?
As a tax attorney, I can assure you the Tax Code has nothing to do with collecting tax. The Tax Code is designed for social engineering purposes.
I guess I am surprised at the writer's surprise that the number of people paying no tax would be increasing as unemployment explodes. Even I could have predicted that result. Another 12 million Americans lost their jobs, but in other shocking news the use of food stamps has increased.
The writer is FoS. Did he add in Social Security tax? Did he add in local and state taxes? Did he add in AMT? Did he note that the given tax brackets were for single earners? Did he add in imposed fees through phone, business, environment, water, electricity, services, and bureaucracy? Did he add in the job and income killing "free trade agreements" passed for the benefit of the wealthy? Did the author carry the figures over to the over$10M income earners. Oh, gee, no. They pay lower rates than anyone. Less than 15% for most.
Another thing burns me up in these comparisons. There is a huge increase in tax rates as you move up the income scale by working harder and harder ... until you hit the top rate and then it's a flat tax from there on.
Speaking of "skewing the median and the mean representation," $500,000 to infinity seems to be an awefully large range to group into one number.
Why do we have "income" taxes?
Founders did not want people to be taxed on their labor...just on gains/profits. If they tax you on your total income...isn't that like saying that your cost basis (your labor) is zero? Taxing labor is a form of slavery.
The 16th amendment did not give any new taxing powers to the federal govt. A couple of supreme court cases covered this. Read the Constitution, Federalist papers, and Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations.
Go look back at the size of the Federal Govt. over the years. It exploded after they started taxing incomes...it really got going in WWII when people started paying the voluntary Victory Tax. Stop feeding the beast. Wage earners/self-employed are bent over at tax time. Start a business, any business, and at least you'll be able to deduct expenses.
Double-post >:(
Cost of Government Day was Aug 19 in 2010. You're more of a slave than you think:
http://fiscalaccountability.org/?content=cogdteas10#
The Government should tax Stock Assets every year like they do Real Estate. That would reduce the deficit.
So, every year you get an Asset Tax. The same way you get a Real Estate Tax which is effectively an asset tax.
It would also tax greedy old coots like Warren Buffet. Maybe then he would pay his fair share.
Isn't the article just another attempt to mask the rape and pillage of the many by the few?
Shared sacrifice indeed. ‘The rich are sacrificing the most’ indeed.
And the proof? IRS tax tables. Yes, mislead the foolish to believe IRS taxes are the only taxes paid, and IRS reported income being both accurate and the only source of wealth.
Pretend the hard-earned earnings of the McDonald's cook is the same as payoffs to investment CEOs and military contractors. Oh, the suffering and sacrifices of the latter.
The miserable billionaires who are denied health care for lack of coverage, the homeless ones, the hungry ones. Those billionaires imprisoned for their personal choices, like using drugs or being sex workers.
Don’t forget those billionaires suffering from loss of public transportation, public parks, sewage sanitation, and water treatment. All due to the political decision-making to invest in wars and bailouts instead of the crumbling infrastructure, decision-making we are supposed to attribute to the lower classes.
And lest we be accused of national ethnocentrism, remember the shared sacrifices of drug lords and oil sheikh allies subservient to global enterprises like Monsanto, EXXON, Halliburton and the Pentagon. Foreign populations in general though, make no sacrifices because they are always ‘better off’ for the corporate and military interventions conducted at the direction of our elite.
What would be really “contrarian” would be to recognize that the sacrifices are typically even more inequitably spread than are the inequitable benefits (IRS measurements notwithstanding).
Warren Buffet pointed out this morning on CNBC that 40% of US tax revenues come from "payroll taxes" ... which is paid with dollars, including by those making $5,000 a year. So calling something "income" tax does not change the reality of taxes paid. After all, it is these same dollars that go out as benefits to social security and medicare beneficiaries.
And the top 400 tax payers, pay no payroll taxes (capped at $106,000 income) on capital gains and dividends.
Expecting the government to find a practical, pertinent solution to ANY problem is similar to expecting a 99 year-old woman to get pregnant and give birth - some things are just not going to happen...
The increase in the percent paying no income tax is probably related to the percent increase in the poor.
I'm a security guard.
Because America's immigration policy is to let in low paid labor but keep out high paid labor, by legal and illegal immigration, and by labor embodied in products, I have a real tax rate of 80%.
I would love to have a flat income tax if it came with a flat imported labor policy. I don't care how much labor they bring in if the high income people had the same competition I do.
My real income would double if my income tax was cut to only 60%. It would quadruple at an income tax rate of 20%.
Speed the day.
You're the same guy who couldn't do the captcha...
Um...as fucked up as the US tax-code is, I'd really like to see a breakdown on how your rate comes out to 80%. It sounds like you probably forgot to carry or something. Or you've got a very generous definition for "tax rate."