A record number of the 142 million tax returns filed in 2008 resulted in no tax payment
"Don't worry, we'll charge double next year."
Posted on 03/14/2010 6:30:16 AM PDT by reaganaut1
A record number of the 142 million tax returns filed in 2008 resulted in no tax payment, according to a Tax Foundation analysis of IRS data. That means the tax filers got back every dollar that had been withheld from their paychecks, and often more. Roughly 51.6 million tax returns, or 36.3 percent, were filed by such "nonpayers," people whose exemptions, deductions and credits wiped out any federal income tax due.
A family of four earning more than $50,000 can have no income tax liability after taking the standard deduction and the child tax credit.
"Two records were set in 2008: the most nonpayers and the highest-earning nonpayers," said Tax Foundation President Scott Hodge, who authored Tax Foundation Fiscal Fact, No. 214, "Record Numbers of People Paying No Income Tax; Over 50 Million 'Nonpayers' Include Families Making over $50,000." The Fiscal Fact is available online at http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/25962.html.
"Nonpaying status used to be a sure sign of poverty, but thanks to increased use of the tax code to deliver social benefits, incentivize behaviors and funnel money to targeted groups, middle-class families have now been pulled into the growing pool of nonpayers," Hodge said. "We're now in a situation where a record number of tax filers are completely disconnected from the cost of government."
The number of nonpayers has increased by 59 percent in less than a decade, growing from 32.6 million in 2000 to 51.6 million in 2008. In the same time period, the total number of tax filers grew by only 10 percent.
The last record for the number of nonpayers was set in 2006, when 33 percent of tax filers paid nothing. A record has been set every year since 2002 (30.1 percent),
(Excerpt) Read more at taxfoundation.org ...
It drives me nuts when liberals whine about the rich not paying their “fair share”. They never have an answer when I ask what is the poor’s “fair share”?
If 2008 was a record, just wait for 2009. There ain’t no more. It will get a little tight when the only ones who make enough to pay taxes are the government employees.
sarc
This is what 40 years of Marxist indoctrination in higher education, and manipulation of the weak minded public by democrats, has bred into liberalism
care to guess how most of those people vote?
A case can be made for the fact that the working poor pay sales tax but that still doesn’t mean its unfair. I exclude the welfare poor because the taxpayer is already picking up the tab.
What the hell are we supposed to do, have different sales tax rates and an identification system so the rich pay a higher sales tax rate? Here in Michigan we don’t have a sales tax on food, maybe the “rich” should pay 10%. LOL
A government that robs Peter to pay Paul will always have the support of Paul. The Demonrats think we don’t have enough Pauls yet, so they intend to grant amnesty to 20 million illegals.
Next February should be interesting. EIC for all.
Borrow a homeless kid if you have to...
I am a little concerned about this “non-taxpayers” statement, because it misses the obvious: the tax is an *income* tax, not a *wealth* tax.
Last year was such a steep recession that I would not be surprised if the feds got $1T less in tax revenues, solely because so many people lost so much money. At that point, it says nothing about expenditures, just that people with much less income pay little or no tax on that income, and people with huge losses can actually amortize those losses over several years on their taxes.
The reason I am concerned is that all over the country, government at the local and State level, and likely the federal level, are contemplating changing their revenue scheme to *wealth*, not income. And this is very dangerous.
The best example of a wealth tax is property taxes, which are horrific, if you think about it. Perpetual taxes on something you own, just for the “right of ownership”, basically mean that you do not own it, you can only lease it. It goes against the entire concept of private property.
But Americans have learned to live with it. However, imagine this type of tax extended to the other things you own.
In old Mexico, taxation was based on what your home looked like from the outside, and how many windows you had. So people had cruddy looking dirt yards and few windows. Inside, however, their houses looked nice. But this is a good example of what happens when a wealth tax is introduced.
If the government tries to tax wealth in banks, people withdraw their money from the banks. If it sends assessors to people’s houses, to guesstimate how much their “stuff” is worth, people start living in Japanese minimalism.
Because people are driving less, and the federals are planning to steeply raise gas prices, many governments are planning mileage taxes, on top of fuel taxes.
And none of this even mentions spending.
Well between 600K layoffs a month and stock portfolios getting cut in half, a record number of taxpayers started going broke in 2008 too.
Most of the non payers can thank Republican sponsored tax cuts for that status. Taking more and more lower and middle class Americans out of taxpayer status, in order to get Democrat support for overall lowering of tax rates, will turn out to have been a Faustian bargain.
I agree, especially because the Democrats will preserve the child credits and other subsidies for non-taxpayers and try to gouge more from the people who actually pay taxes.
what is amazing is they may have already leveled the playing field more than we realize. when you are on welfare, get free education benefits, healthcare, food for your school kids and home, cell phone, and other perks....does that count as income or can we assume that we are adding ‘benefits’ onto the salary of those families making $50k? if so — when you calculate the income, plus benefits they may actually make more than those who have paid the taxes and make slightly higher taxes (who miss the cut off for all the bennies and will soon begin paying taxes on their health benefits). gotta love these dems.
Next February should be interesting. EIC for all.
Borrow a homeless kid if you have to...
And those assembled here are the ones who will be looked upon to pay the bills. This is as much targeted at bankrupting conservatives as anyone. Yet, we continue to subsidize this. And it’s not just the tax side of this, it’s the debt side as well.
Own savings bonds? T-bills? GNMAs? Are they the underlying investment in your money market account or 401(k)? If the answer is yes, you’re subsidizing the 0ne just as surely as if you had scratched a check.
A record number of the 142 million tax returns filed in 2008 resulted in no tax payment
"Don't worry, we'll charge double next year."
Let us repeat for emphasis.
This is what 40 years of Marxist indoctrination in higher education, and manipulation of the weak minded public by democrats, has bred into liberalism.
This travesty is likely to continue and even grow some more, until, those supporting the weak minded public finally find themselves unable, unwilling or both to allow themselves to be the slaves of run-a-muck government and her selfish children.
A government that robs Peter to pay Paul will soon control both Peter and Paul.
Are you joking when you say that they can send assessors to your house!!!????
Each year my husband & I dread the bloodletting. It baffles me when people say they get so much back. I feel like I am living on a different planet. And yes— where I work the people who get all the gov’t benefits come in all excited about getting their money back.
(the sound of me screaming for a prolonged time...)
But, the Bush tax changes expire this year and many who are not paying taxes now are going to find themselves betrayed by Obama in 2011. The Dems, if they still hold Congress, will be forced to do something about that which gives me some hope that we will not see the Bush tax cut package totally wiped out.
The decline will last a long long time. I have retired friends who, despite my urgings not to do so, cashed in their retirement accounts at the depth of the market last March.
Obviously, their retirement income will never come back since they have totally missed the stock market recovery. Those who cashed in taxable accounts have such large capital losses that, at $3K/year tax loss carry-forward, they will never live long enough to use up their tax losses from last year.
Several (those lucky enough to do so) have gone back to work at 70+ years of age. No more retirement for them (though they will probably remain more healthy for doing so)!
The Sixteenth Amendment was originally passed based on the lie (politicians lie - who knew?) that the income tax would only be paid by the top one percent of earners. This trend in a sense is just moving back to where the filthy scumbags who unleashed this pestilence on us said it would be. The part that no one of foresaw is how people who didn’t pay any tax would actually get money back without having paid it in, e.g. the Earned Income Credit.
But they sure now how to vote themselves benefits that others will have to pay for.
This is ridiculous. Get a flat tax stat! I paid 12,500 dollars that year. This is one reason that people don’t care about raising taxes...they don’t pay any.
About right for me too. And here's a thought that gets me reaching for the Maalox (or the bourbon); When you calculate the indirect taxes which are added into the mix of all the goods and services you purchase, about 50% of all the wealth you earn is taken from you by taxes. This is just so wrong.
Your tagline - Me too! I’m taking indelible ink and writing it in the palm of my hand.
Hopefully that big paycut I took to keep my job gets me into the no tax paying category. Free health care, free food, etc., plus maybe a little back so I can buy more dope.
I’m just as American as the next guy when it comes to paying taxes. I will avoid them to the full extent of the law. But it’s not fair or healthy for our republic to have to have non-contributors. They have no stake in the actions of our government.
EVERYONE must pay some federal taxes...from a base level of 2% for income under $15k...to a max of 20% for income above $1mil.
No deductions for anything, ever. Apply the same scale to all business...and eliminate capital gains and estate taxes.
Exactly, my opinion is that if you don’t pay taxes, you can’t vote because you will always vote to put more of someone else’s money in your pocket.
It's not avoiding. It's not evading.
It's minimizing!
*ducks for cover*
...which still leaves you with a progressive, direct taxation system amenable to Marxists.
Tax avoidance is perfectly legal. I’m not hiding! :)
Remember, the "flat tax" can be even MORE amenable to Marxists.
Ideally, we'd go to a national sales tax...with complete elimination of the income tax.
Consumers pay. Savers don't.
You'd have exemptions for food, drugs, medical services etc., of course.
Or you could just cut government until it meets whatever funding sources it had before.
But it would be easier to push a "soak the rich" luxury tax, like you just did.
I’m predicting a change in the property tax laws, expanding them to include non-real-estate “property” such as TVs or boats.
“We’re now in a situation where a record number of tax filers are completely disconnected from the cost of government.”
I don’t think so. Federal Income Tax is hardly the whole “cost of government.”
Hey, if you’ll just support Obamacare, you won’t need to buy dope, so long as you can come up with some real or imagined ailment that permits legal use of it.
Got a local doc that gives out what you need. So I really don’t need Obamacare.
I had not thought about that, but it seems very fair. The more I understand about the flat tax idea, the more I like it. I couldn’t really see it going anywhere because it would leave many, many people w/ out their gov’t trough paycheck.
Taxes- depressing anyway you look at it.
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