Posted on 04/29/2010 10:27:14 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
Bill Brady, the Republican candidate for governor of Illinois, paid no federal income tax in 2009.
In recent weeks, I've written a couple of columns about reports that nearly half the people in the United States will not pay federal income tax for 2009.
In part, that's the result of new tax credits aimed at stimulating the economy.
Still, as someone who paid the tax, it bothers me that some people don't. Especially people wealthier than I am.
When that wealthier person happens to be a political candidate complaining about high taxes, well, it seems sort of wrong.
Brady reported $119,900 in income on his 2009 federal tax return but paid no federal income tax because of losses in his family business. An IRS provision allowed him to take a tax break offered to struggling small businesses during the Great Recession, according to the Brady campaign.
Brady owns a real estate and homebuilding business that apparently suffered huge losses when the housing market tanked. As a result, he was forced to lay off half the employees in his real estate business and 34 workers in his construction firm.
Brady released his 2009 tax returns several days ago, and I've been mulling his situation ever since.
On the one hand, Brady apparently did nothing illegal. Former Chicago mayor Harold Washington failed to pay his taxes, and that was illegal. Still, he was elected to office.
On the other hand, the income tax rules as they apply to people like Brady don't seem fair.
I haven't heard much complaining about any of this from conservative Republicans or those in the Tea Party movement.
Maybe I shouldn't be surprised. Republicans always are looking for government handouts for the wealthy and entitlements for businessmen. They seem to believe that entitlements are bad for poor people but help the economy grow when they benefit the rich.
Brady hardly can be called rich today, although he did report an adjusted gross income of more than $500,000 for 2004.
But he did loan his campaign about $1 million, which most people couldn't afford to do.
The thing that bothers me is that the tax system doesn't seem fair.
I'm going to get calls and e-mails from Republicans telling me they've been saying that for years. Yeah, but your definition of fair and my definition of fair are two different things.
My idea of fair is that if I'm making $50,000 a year and another guy is making $119,000 a year, he should be paying more than I am in income tax.
I really can't work up much sympathy for the fact that the wealthier guy once earned $500,000 and has fallen on hard times. I'm more likely to sympathize with the construction worker whom Brady put on the unemployment line because his business judgment was so bad.
Oh, but Brady's business judgment wasn't bad. He just suffered from a nationwide economic meltdown, like the rest of society, his defenders likely will respond.
Yeah, but Brady is telling us he can run the state and handle its roughly $50 billion budget responsibly. He even claims that he can reduce the current $13 billion budget hole without raising taxes.
And we should believe him based on, what, his business experience?
I'm not saying Gov. Pat Quinn, a Democrat, is any better. In fact, Quinn's short track record as governor indicates he can't even convince his party leaders that he knows what he's doing.
But at least he paid taxes.
In fairness, there were years when Brady did his share to help Uncle Sam. He paid $158,000 in federal income tax the year he made more than $500,000. His state tax bill that year was $16,622.
I suppose we shouldn't hold a guy accountable if he looks for every tax break he can get in tough times. Most of us do.
But Brady didn't even want to reveal his income tax records until Quinn forced him into it. And then he unveiled those records for only three hours to a few reporters in Springfield.
If you've got nothing to hide, why not put the returns online? Let the public and tax accountants pore over them and explain it all on the Internet to those of us who paid taxes for 2009.
It seems to me Brady represents well the Republican Party. He's a small businessman who got tax breaks, laid off employees and didn't pay any income tax when things didn't go well for him.
Isn't that what the Republican Party wants? Help the small businessman, and he'll eventually help the rest of us. Someday.
As for the "no new income tax" pledge, that was Rod Blagojevich's promise in two gubernatorial elections. And he kept it.
If that's all you're looking for in a governor, you're setting the bar way too low.
Paying taxes or increasing them isn't the real issue.
Who can you trust?
That's the big one.
pkadner@southtownstar.com
ILLINOIS PING
Well did he break the law? Apparently not. End of story.
I’d like us all to go on a tax strike.
How many times will they mention the Democrats who don’t pay any taxes?
As long as a candidate pays what he is legally required to pay under current tax law he or she should remain a viable candidate without question. Tax dodgers like Congressman Rangle and Sec. Geitner on the other hand are a different animal altogether!
Brady apparently applied the tax laws to his income and expenses and the result was zero tax... viola’ no tax paid. People such as this author who concern themselves with what others pay worrying that they didn’t pay their fair share even though the followed to tax law can always send a gift check to the treasury - they will gladly accept any amount!
Agree that paying no tax does not “sound” right - but that is the basis of the current confusing tax code!
Support the Fair Tax and stop all this malarky..consumption tax with repeal of the 16th amendment is the only way to go - this will unleash the economy and result in huge increases in revenue for the government. A win all around except for the masses of IRS agents and accountants whose entire existence is based on the fear we all have of not complying with some obscure provision of the tax code no one understands anyway!
Of course this makes too much sense for our Congress - as they would lose their major source of power - the power to tax has become the power to socially engineer society.
Sounds like another leftist to me.
The folks looking for money from the gov are typically leftists.
So people are supposed to pay taxes because it is “fair” and not because they have a legal obligation to do so? If everyone in the ObaMao administration who didn’t pay their “fair” share of taxes was run out of Washington, who would be left?
This guy’s an idiot.
Someone of modest income who takes a deduction due to business losses. I have no problem with that. In fact, that’s how it should be. Would the author rather Brady close down his businesses and lay off the rest of his employees?
Typical Democrat lack of reasoning skills.
You know what bothers me about taxes? A Secretary of the Treasury who underpaid his taxes because he couldn’t use Turbo Tax properly. THAT bothers me.
Agreed. The guy’s an idiot. He has no idea of the difference between income and wealth. Brady paid income taxes on his wealth, which was acquired in prior years when he did have a positive income.
Brady had no (net) income in recent years and that has zero to do with wealth.
The confusion of income and wealth is a common one in our society due to our mis-education system. I see it all the time in my work in IT. I attribute that mis-understanding to the demise of a major insurance company. Management required that IT produce reports that mixed activity for a period of time with snapshots of the company at a point in time.
We in IT protested that mixing those apples and oranges could be done; but would produce a meaningless result on which decisions shoudl nto be made. Management isisted on the meaningless reports. IT produced them. Management made decisions based on them. The company went bankrupt.
[I’m more likely to sympathize with the construction worker whom Brady put on the unemployment line because his business judgment was so bad.]
It wasn’t Brady’s judgement that caused the construction industry to crash.
...I'm more likely to sympathize with the construction worker whom Brady put on the unemployment line because his business judgment was so bad.Oh, but Brady's business judgment wasn't bad. He just suffered from a nationwide economic meltdown, like the rest of society, his defenders likely will respond.
Yeah, but Brady is telling us he can run the state and handle its roughly $50 billion budget responsibly. He even claims that he can reduce the current $13 billion budget hole without raising taxes.
And we should believe him based on, what, his business experience?
If being STOO-PID™ was a Capital Offense, PHIL KADNER would be first in line.
My wife and I paid zero income tax the year we brought our son home, thanks to the approximately $11,000 adoption tax credit. We spent more like $46,000 through the course of the process, though.
Daily and abundantly.
Adoption Tax Credit: http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc607.html
The 2010 amount is $12,170, but in 2011 the amount drops to $5,000 thanks to the sunset of the Bush tax cuts, also known as “the Great Democrat Tax Hike of 2011.”
So not only my job loss in 2008 and my significant pay cut at a new job, but also Obama’s election, has pushed the dream of adopting a daughter further and further away.
Flat tax - 10%’s good enough for God, should be good enough for ‘Caesar’.
No deductions, no exemptions, a flat 10%.
Problem solved.
If you can’t do, and you can’t teach, you end up being a journalist, writing articles for the State.
Here’s the actual math below on who pays taxes:
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/menu/top_50__of_wage_earners_pay_96_09__of_income_taxes.member.html
Bottom Line:
Top 50% of wage earners pay 96.04% of all taxes.
If anything, it’s time to tax the poor. Deadly serious.
I’d raise taxes on the poor.
“Sorry folks, not enough men on the oars at this point, and you are the drain on the system. You wanna eat pork rinds, find men who will do you, get you preggers, and then apply for housing and aid?
Wanna be a pimp daddy and raise all kinds of kids with all kinds of mommies?
Not a problem, but we are going to tax you for it.
In fact, I’m going to tax the poor the most, and make it a disincentive to be a layabout. Go out and invent something. If you start a business and employ people, you can keep every cent. Every single cent. Your employees? They will pay the taxes - don’t sweat it.
Oh, and from here on out, we are taxing gains on municipal bonds and treasuries 40%. Invest your money in private companies? Every cent earned is tax free money. Tax free.
Same with corporate bonds.
Even better - the more people you hire, the more help you are going to get from Uncle Sam. We will index the percentage you pay into SS and Medicare down based on the number of people you hire.
Also, stop withholding anything for Uncle Sam. Collecting from employees is our problem. Pay them what you are going to pay them and we’ll send them a bill for SS and Medicare.
Unions? Absolutely. Go join a union if you want. Make sure you do your homework and get the best deal, because from here on out, they are going to have to sell you their services. From now on, nobody will be required to give so much as a penny to a union unless they elect to on their own. As President, I am all about the freedom of assembly.
I just want to make sure nobody has a financial gun to your head making you go to the meeting.
No more public employee unions. Got a beef with Uncle Sugar, ask if it is OK to sue us and we may agree.
No likie? Go start a business. Invent a vaccine. Pen a book.
For those that own a business? A bank? Securities firm?
The penalties have now changed. Get found guilty of fraud, etc. and you get to die 30 days after you have received your verdict. Same with politicians. Abuse the public trust and you get a Chinese-style retirement party - a bullet in the mushbucket and a bill to your family for the bullet and the hours spent pulling the triggers.
No more investigating yourselves either. The Oklahoma Supreme Court will hear the cases, and the investigations will be carried out by the Texas Rangers, with the bill for all that coming out of Federal Monies. If found guilty, the bill for all that will fall to your estates first.”
I bet he’s just trying to hurt Brady any way he can.
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