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The IMF Disagrees With Zero Hedge
On Thursday, after we presented an article by Simon Black in which the author suggested that the IMF was implicitly proposing a 71% tax-rate on Americans, by "suggesting that the US government could maximize its tax revenue by increasing tax brackets to as high as 71%", the IMF took offense to this characterization, and tweeted out the following:
@zerohedge is wrong: IMF does not propose a 71% income tax.
— IMF (@IMFNews) December 13, 2013
Naturally, the IMF has a right to its opinion, be it retroactive revisionism, or proactive humorous predictions about the future, which incidentally we have charted in the past showing just how "accurate" the IMF's forecasting track record has been in recent years...
... but since the topic of taxation, be it on wealth (something we warned about in September 2011, which as depositors in Cyprus banks learned about the hard way in March of this year), or income, is far less humorous, we leave it up to readers to decide just what the IMF is "proposing", using only the IMF's own words.
Below we present the key passage from the IMF's October 2013 Fiscal Monitor report titled "Taxing Times."
Whether those with the highest incomes could or should pay more has become a contentious political issue in many countries. Several, given large consolidation needs, have bucked the decades-long trend by increasing top personal income tax rates quite substantially: since 2008, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom have all done so, on average by more than 8 percentage points.
Assessing whether there is untapped revenue potential at the top of the income distribution requires comparing today’s top marginal income tax rate with the marginal tax rate that would maximize the amount of tax paid by top income earners. The latter depends on two things: first, how responsive their taxable income is to that marginal rate—which in turn depends on both “real” decisions (on labor supply efforts and the like) and “paper” avoidance activities; and second, the distribution of income within that upper group. Ranges of revenue-maximizing top income tax rates can be calculated by combining existing estimates of the elasticity of taxable income with the data on income distribution used above. The average is about 60 percent. In several cases, current top marginal rates are toward the lower end of the range (Figure 17), implying that it might indeed be possible to raise more from those with the highest incomes.
How much more? The implied revenue gain if top rates on only the top 1 percent were returned to their levels in the 1980s averages about 0.20 percent of GDP (Figure 18), but the gain could in some cases, such as that of the United States, be more significant. This would not make much of a dent in aggregate inequality, for which, if that is the objective, more dramatic change would be needed.
Figure 17:
Furthermore, here is additional commentary from the WSJ dated December 3, 2013 with "The Coming Global Wealth Tax", preceding our article if picking up where we left off in September 2011, and curiously a piece the IMF had no problems with:
What the IMF calls "revenue-maximizing top income tax rates" may be a good indication of how much further those rates could rise: As the IMF calculates, the average revenue-maximizing rate for the main Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development countries is around 60%, way above existing levels.
For the U.S., it is 56% to 71%—far more than the current 45% paid in federal, state and local taxes by those in the top tax bracket. The IMF singles out the U.S. as the country where raising top rates toward 70% (where they were before the Reagan tax cuts) would yield the most revenue—around 1.25% of GDP. And with a chilling candor, the IMF admits that its revenue-maximizing approach takes no account of the well-being of top earners (or their businesses).
...
Of course these measures won't return the world's top economies to sustainable levels of debt. That could be achieved only through significant economic growth (the good way) or, as the IMF puts it, "by repudiating public debt or inflating it away" (the bad way). In October the IMF floated a bold idea that didn't get the attention it deserved: lowering sovereign debt levels through a one-off tax on private wealth.
As applied to the euro zone, the IMF claims that a 10% levy on households' positive net worth would bring public debt levels back to pre-financial crisis levels. Such a tax sounds crazy, but recall what happened in euro-zone country Cyprus this year: Holders of bank accounts larger than 100,000 euros had to incur losses of up to 100% on their savings above that threshold, in order to "bail-in" the bankrupt Mediterranean state. Japanese households, sitting on one of the world's largest pools of savings, have particular reason to worry about their assets: At 240% of GDP, their country's public debt ratio is more than twice that of Cyprus when it defaulted.
...
From New York to London, Paris and beyond, powerful economic players are deciding that with an ever-deteriorating global fiscal outlook, conventional levels and methods of taxation will no longer suffice. That makes weapons of mass wealth destruction—such as the IMF's one-off capital levy, Cyprus's bank deposit confiscation, or outright sovereign defaults—likelier by the day.
Indeed, here is the IMF on the prospect of a "one-off" financial asset tax:
A One-Off Capital Levy?
The sharp deterioration of the public finances in many countries has revived interest in a “capital levy”— a one-off tax on private wealth—as an exceptional measure to restore debt sustainability. The appeal is that such a tax, if it is implemented before avoidance is possible and there is a belief that it will never be repeated, does not distort behavior (and may be seen by some as fair). There have been illustrious supporters, including Pigou, Ricardo, Schumpeter, and—until he changed his mind—Keynes. The conditions for success are strong, but also need to be weighed against the risks of the alternatives, which include repudiating public debt or inflating it away (these, in turn, are a particular form of wealth tax—on bondholders—that also falls on nonresidents).
There is a surprisingly large amount of experience to draw on, as such levies were widely adopted in Europe after World War I and in Germany and Japan after World War II. Reviewed in Eichengreen (1990), this experience suggests that more notable than any loss of credibility was a simple failure to achieve debt reduction, largely because the delay in introduction gave space for extensive avoidance and capital flight—in turn spurring inflation.
The tax rates needed to bring down public debt to precrisis levels, moreover, are sizable: reducing debt ratios to end-2007 levels would require (for a sample of 15 euro area countries) a tax rate of about 10 percent on households with positive net wealth
... which promptly resulted in this "IMF Statement on Taxation" clarification.
So is Zero Hedge wrong as the IMF broadly trumpets? We'll let readers decide. However, we just wanted to set the record straight - after all the last thing we want is for the IMF to admit it is wrong once again as it did in early 2013 with the whole "fiscal multipliers" fiasco (about which incidentally the IMF would be absolutely correct if instead of "austerity" the IMF were to use the proper term in its calculations: "corruption, gross government incompetence and epic capital misallocation").
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used to follow a site like this...was called the oil drum...what happened? drowning now. idiots
You won't find it now but in early June of 2013, the IMF website had a page which provided information regarding a meeting that took place. During that meeting, a 35% permanent and immediate hike in taxes and an immediate and permanent 35% decrease in govt entitlement checks was proposed. It was read by me and I do not lie muthafucker. In a month or so, I went back to pick up the link but the entire page WAS GONE.
Give me a lie detector test you loser or shut the fuck up.
i own u
You own nobody you little establishment drone. Do you know what Worker Bees do to the Drones? They throw them out of the hive to starve. Enjoy your starvation Drone. Your usefulness is coming to an end as the Establishement dies.
Collapse baby collapse.
Your bosses will exclude you from the underground shelters. It does not matter as they will also die from lack of Oxygen as the atmosphere becomes depleted in the near future.
Burn Fukushima burn. Poison the Oceans, baby.
Kill of the Plankton baby.
Kill the Oceans.
Kill off the life on the Planet.
Mass extinction. Yeah baby.
You have helped create a world no one wants to live in.
is this it? copy of imf document included. http://www.zerohedge.com/article/imf-says-us-must-raise-all-taxes-cut-all-entitlements-35-contain-future-budget?page=1&the_survival_rate_for_everyone_drops_to_zero)=
Thank you. This is this site where it was read by me:
http://www.imf.org/external/country/USA/index.htm
The last time I attempted to find it, it appeared they had revised the report and excluded the suggestion regarding the 35% hike in taxes alrady in place and 35% decrease in govt checks.
and u know who i am
You are nothing.
bunny, i bet u r someone's bitch all day long. i can tell by the way u type...must suck.
Oh you bet I am one mean bitch. I have sat back and watched this country fall to pieces during the last 13 years all the while you boys and girls making $$$ hand-over-fist in the stock market, charging up a life of luxury as if there was no tomorrow.
The heist continues. The middle class is being eliminated and literally, there are people keeling over from the stress of watching every goddamn thing they have worked for reduced to ashes. Every promise made by the politicians to get elected and simultaneously get richer-than-filth has been broken.
We have AIPAC burning a trail to Congress. We have Israel putting the "Samson option" on the table if it does nto get its way, we have NSA preparing to label everyone a criminal, we have good young men in prison or facing prison for TELLING THE FUCKING TRUTH.
You assholes who have contributed to the fall of the middle class will find yourselves in the same boat as the rest of us unless you have to be living in Iceland.
Monopolization will send our descendents into slavery and I will not go to my grave without attempting to change the course of the monsters in charge of us (the ones with the guns pointed at the heads of politicians in every country).
Get out of the way.
Do not concern yourself too much. He is a walking dead man. He knows it. His progeny will also die. It scares the hell out of him.
Of course you and I are dead too. But the Sulfur Metabolite Organisms will take over as the Oxygen is depleted from the atmosphere. Fukushima will kill everybody as it kills off the Plankton. The Plankton are responsible for Oxygenating the Oceans and the World. The Ocean currents bring Fresh Plankton in for the kill as Fukushima poisons the Oceans. The Oceans are dying thus so are we.
There is Physical Confirmation as Northwestern Pacific Waters have turned acidic. That is what is killing off the Sea Stars. Waters turn Acidic upon a lack of the (OH)-. The chemical Formula for Water is known by many as H2O. While that is true it is also known as H+(OH)-. When there is not enough Oxygen then there is a lack of (OH)- ions as it takes Oxygen to create that. Thus there is an abundance of H+ anions and the Water becomes Acidic. The H+ combines with the Calcium Carbonates in suspension as well as attack the exoskeletons of Oceanic Life..
Acid-Base Reactions in Solution is taught extensively in the First Semester of any competent and accredited University Chemistry Course. It is Second Semester University Biology which covers Ocean Ecology.
Since it is the Plankton that is responsible for producing the Oxygen in the Oceans, through Photosynthesis, we can strongly infer that they are being killed off in Massive Numbers. What is killing them off in Massive Numbers? Can they be cooked as they pass through the Radioactive Pollutant as they pass close by Fukushima where the Intensity of the Radiation is sufficient to cause fatal mutations in cellular reproduction? (Those are rhetorical questions.)
Fukushima is continuously poisoning the Pacific as the Radioactive Pollutants are dumped into the Ocean. It is killing the Plankton so the Oceans are DYING.
So he is a dead man who just does not realize it. his sentence is written...as it is for all of us. We will not have any descendants that will last for much longer as they are not DOING ANYTHING to alleviate the results of the predicament which the World is facing.
We are all dead.
If this is the case, the least we can do is die gracefully. Not add to the suffering with aberrant and deviant rules and regulations would be a gift to mankind. It is the right thing to do.
Tom & Bunny,
I saw you both last night on that show about adults that dress up as stuffed animals. tards, get a life.
What are you saying? That the world on your watch is just as it should be? You've failed miserably in just about every decision and if you think you can live in your castle and sip fine wine while the rest of us sink, think again. The meek will inherit the earth. You should not be allowed to make comments on ZH without adult supervision and "tard" is a reflection of the depth of your character you creep.
Congratulations ZH ... when the IMF acknowledges you, you have arrived at relevance ... or they have nothing better to do
The International Mafia Fund baffle with bullshit. Their hitmen have fancy suits, and degrees of legalese. The aim is still the same: racketeering, profits from guns, drugs, war and prostitution. Ruining the world for the profit of the globalists, the Internationale.
The International Mafia Fund, previously led by that pillar of probity, Dominic Strauss Kahn, now facing criminal charges in France for organised pimping:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2379000/Disgraced-IMF-chief-Domi...
The International Mafia Fund has got its political puppets to impose scorching taxation in the past, eg Britain's 90% tax rate in the 70s, and it is their modus operandi to do that whenever their pillaging can no longer create economic growth (debt fuelled).
Bastids. Roll the tumbrils.
Apex Predators in Hawaii are OUT OF CONTROL, Shark Attacks up 500% as Fukushima Radiation Rolls In
And I don't mean the lawyers.....
Charts and Descriptions Here!
http://nukeprofessional.blogspot.com/2013/12/apex-predators-in-hawaii-ar...
Quick! Look over there while the usual suspects pillage and rape humankind. The two legged International Mafia Fund are worse than any shark bite.
Your piece is better suited on a different page.
Nope. It is not better suited for another page.
All of the Bullshit about the World Economy...everything...does not matter if we all die as a result of the Meltdowns at Fukushima.
It is a matter of priorities and foresight. If Fukushima is not taken care of, very soon, then mankind faces extinction. That makes every other problem pale in comparison.
If the Oceans die then you simply will die of suffocation. I am not concerned all too much about Radiation Sickness. I am more concerned that the Plankton are being killed off en masse. Since Plankton,not only being at the bottom of the Oceanic Food Chain, but responsible for OXYGENATING the Ocean Waters and, through transpitration, OXYGENATING the Earth's Atmosphere.
They are brought into very close proximity and have DIRECT CONTACT with the Radioactive POISONS dumped from Fukushima. As a result THEY DIE. There is an Ocean Current that bring in Healthy Plankton into the Kill Zone CONTINUOUSLY.
As the numbers of Plankton DEPLETE so does the level of the Percentage of Oxygen in the Earth's Atmosphere.
In this fashion you can enjoy your slow suffocation.
My bet is that you just do not believe it. But ask yourself a question...There are many scientists on this website. Just why do they not dispute my claims? If I am writing Bullshit then they will call me out. They will dispute claims made by George Washington about the Radiation Levels reaching the US Coast as being dangerous. I have read them.
But when I show them the EVIDENCE of ACID WATERS in the Pacific Northwest they CANNOT DISPUTE MY CLAIM THAT THE OCEAN WATERS ARE OXYGEN DEPLETED. They can question why. They can propose alternative hypothesis. But they CANNOT CHANGE THE FACTS OR THE CHEMISTRY.
Yet they have NOT. NOBODY has offered another reasonable hypothesis for the Oxygen Depleted Pacific Northwest Coatal Waters. I am ALL EARS. I WANT TO BE WRONG!!! In the Name of Jesus Christ I want to be wrong.
So what are YOUR PRIORITIES?
If the IMF really has their ears on...If the IMF is really READING THIS WEBSITE...then the IMF had better GET THE FUCKING CLUE THAT WE HAVE A MAJOR PROBLEM and we need to CLEAN IT UP...NO MATTER HOW MUCH IT COSTS.
SO THIS IS THE MOST APPROPRIATE PAGE FOR THIS TO BE POSTED ON. IT IS GOING TO KILL ALL OF US. DON'T YOU GET IT?!? You cannot kill the Oceans.
algae on the beach in paradise, wow that stinks, fairly new feces? please don't bother to define that one. i just know hawaii is being promoted on one of those real estate channels. its where american expat wannabes go when they don't quite want to leave the country (and fly into the IMF zone, Argentina?) but its a good place to get your phony birth certificate vetted. the IMF has a definitely diminshed role in the BRIC. as far as growth is concerned there's been a two decade ramp up, you suppose things might cool down?
This is bad bad bad. Nothern Pacific dying. http://www.activistpost.com/2013/10/something-is-killing-life-all-over.html
Already testing how long I can store rice, olive oil, dried pasta etc...
when most of your water is tritium that won't help.
Apex Predators in Hawaii are OUT OF CONTROL, Shark Attacks up 500% as Fukushima Radiation Rolls In
And I don't mean the lawyers.....
Charts and Descriptions Here!
http://nukeprofessional.blogspot.com/2013/12/apex-predators-in-hawaii-ar...
Same here in Australia , more attacks, two fatals
ZH - kinda like wikileaks except that the info is already out there - nobody else will pubish it though
Its like competing for the pulitzer with the editor of the grade 6 newspaper editor.
The MSM should not even be called media - MSP - main stream propaganda
Googl search
IMF ZERO HEDGE
get us on the top of the list ..
The Imperious Mother Fuckers is a criminal organization that must be avoided by nations at all costs. Nothing they say or do bears value, they are obviously agents of destruction bent on tearing down any nascent success a country might develop to deliver that country into the hands of NWO organizers.
The Mad Tweeter is right....they want it *all*.
Light is only darkness revealed. Use it, or lose it.
It just baffles the bagoda that there are so many smart and intelligent people in the world, and yet they still do not get it. All the babble jockey working hard for the mighty mammonic god money, is a waste of time and energy. How can it be something people think more about, than the real death to every living soul on the planet that is forming up faster and faster every day? How smart is it to plan and work hard for a future that is non-existent? Maybe people like to waste their lives away and throw moneys out the window the minute they get it? Maybe death by radiation does not register in the cranial cavities of those who are reputedly smart enough to reason, no life means no future.
Baffling buffoonery for all batters up. The real deal is now after years of warnings, this fukushima thing is far beyond controlling or stopping, barring some sort of planetary miracle. Living in the best quality one can provide for themselves and the ones they love one day at a time is all we can do now.
Moar War? Why bother? The death of all sides is inevitably coming. Perchance, sooner than most want to admit to, or acknowledge. Those who have kow-towed to the god money and supported it's viral contamination of mostly all beings on the planet, will cry out loudly the day they find out their evil masters are killing them off too. Hiding in the underground tombs will not save them either.
Laying up your treasures in heaven is all the truly intelligent should be doing now, barring all good men standing up like real men do, and then stopping the killing madness RIGHT NOW! It does not matter who gets to the Pearly Gates first or last, at the rate things are going and the way this Extinction Level Event is heating up faster and faster, every Man Jack and Lady Sally will be there sooner than any one wants to admit to. All things are Karmic in Nature. There is NO ESCAPE from Karmic Justice. What goes around, comes around. Practice being in Karmic credit, rather than living in karmic debt.
Really, what the heck matters compared to the ongoing horrendous rotten-tick bankster Extinction Level Event Attack on the world's people? How can the majority of smart people world-wide openly and ignorantly allow these cretins of the money god to blatantly in your face continue to kill you all off? What matters compared to all the lives on the entire west coast and north eastern regions? What matters compared to all the lives in Europe? Is money and gain that important, even more important than life itself? Yes, maybe it is to the evil horrid rotten-tick banksters, but is the same true for the other 99% of the earth's populations?
Hummmm...go figure.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHY00xN8HoI&feature=share&list=UUxz5R9YQM...
It's always entertaining when oldfags like the IMF fail on the internet.
The IMF just broke rule number one.
typical IMF...putting up a meaningless statistical chart...have they EVER considered that there may be a short run and a long run laffer curve.....there is...with the long run laffer curve maximum under 30%
RE
Yeah, but secretly, you know they WANT to
hate to be captain obvious, but why not force losses on the buyers of countries debt?
they suggest, not propose :D as if there was a difference :D
Globalization is a corporation's wettest dream come true, including that of the IMF.
Lets see how TPP goes down in the age of information:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2013/12/12/the-tpp-is-not-an-agreement-among-like-minded-countries/
IMF wants us to pay 70%, NOT 71%! So yes zerohedge is WRONG!
the US Treasury is the IMF. Sold out long time ago.
Kudos to zH