[The Good Doctor]

"Example: Theresa Heinz Kerry in 2003 reported over 5,000,000 in income and yet she only paid 587.000 in federal tax."

So she paid $587,000.

You made an unqualified statement, "The rich don't pay taxes." I'm going to guess Teresa Heinz paid more of the government's bills in 2003 than you.

[Carry_Okie]

I'm going to guess Teresa Heinz paid more of the government's bills in 2003 than you.

As a percentage of her income, she paid less than a quarter what we did.

[fight_truth_decay]

http://www.taxhistory.org/thp/presreturns.nsf//E2DF8209BA59B45485256F310077A3DF/$file/T_HeinzKerry_2003.pdf

http://forums.techguy.org/civilized-debate/282048-teresa-heinz-kerry-urges-democrats-5.html

[only1percent]

Heinz owns a lot of municipal bonds, and is effectively "taxed" by way of the reduced yields she gets on them (under ordinary circumstances) versus the yields if they were taxable corporate bonds of equivalent credit rating.

People who attack tycoon like Heinz for paying lower total tax rates on their mostly passive income than the upper middle class pay for their mostly earned-at-work income are actually making precisely the same argument that is made by those who support the estate tax: that there is no good reason to make the return on investment (or gift or bequest) of already-taxed income subject to lower rate of tax because it has already been taxed.

[JohnLongIsland]

If the tax exemption received by municipal bond holders was eliminated and local government was to pay prevailing interest rates , one would get extreme sticker shock when their property and school tax bills arrive in the mail. Oh I rent one says, then your landlord will be the recipient of the tax increases.