Posted on 09/12/2011 5:14:56 PM PDT by Kaslin
In last week's campaign speech disguised as an address to Congress, President Obama said, "Warren Buffett pays a lower tax rate than his secretary — an outrage he has asked us to fix."
Writing recently in The New York Times, the famed chairman of Berkshire Hathaway complained that his federal income tax last year was "only 17.4% of my taxable income" — less than $7 million on a taxable income of about $40 million.
Buffett claimed that, like himself, other "mega-rich pay income taxes at a rate of 15% on most of their earnings," but that is not at all common. The average income-tax rate of those earning between $1 million and $10 million was 29.5% in 2009.
Obama used Buffett's uniquely low 17.4% tax as proof that "a few of the most affluent citizens and most profitable corporations enjoy tax breaks and loopholes that nobody else gets." That is not true.
Anyone whose income is almost entirely composed of realized capital gains or dividends would "pay income taxes at a rate of 15% on most of their earning." Investors with modest incomes also pay a tax rate of 15% on dividends and capital gains, although that rate is scheduled to rise to 18.8% under the Obama health law (and much higher if Congress enacted the "reforms" Obama will propose next Monday).
Before 2003, when the tax on dividends was made the same as the tax on capital gains, Berkshire Hathaway was a handy tax dodge — a way to own dividend-paying stocks without paying taxes on the dividends. Buffett is famous for collecting stocks with a generous dividend yield without Berkshire itself paying any dividend.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
Yep, it’s sure not growing the private sector too;
The Macroeconomic Effects of Tax Changes
By Christina D. Romer and David H. Romer
http://emlab.berkeley.edu/users/dromer/papers/RomerandRomerAERJune2010.pdf
“tax increase of 1% of GDP lowers real GDP by almost 3%”
Thye hell with Buffett. Whgile he is volunteering to pay mopre his corporations already owe 4 Billion they arent paying. Lock the Bastard up.
Liberals ain't about raising people to their highest potential.
All they care about is smashing everybody down to the lowest common denominator.
The tax changes are not about increased revenue. The changes are about feeding red meat to moonbats. Blood thirsty moonbats must be pacified with blood. Red Meat is the best source of blood
Only some of the “little people” are dumb enough to forget the obvious....
Rich people have really good tax preparers who find the deductions, credits and deferrals that the Congressmen always keep in the tax code.
Probably 35% of the population ignores this. It’s the 15% of the population that’s hard core left-wing but also poor and 20% of the population that’s middle class but votes Democrat no matter what because Grandpa did. He passed on a Democrat “gene”.
IMHO (of course that stats are just pulled out of thin air, but close enough for H & H)...
Raising money for the looting class is just the cover story. The real reason to raise taxes on folks who manage to succeed in the private sector is to prevent them from accumulating enough capital to compete with the established big boys.
We are on our way home to USA right now after a very sad trip, dealing with a relative's eventually terminal illness. As difficult as that is, the downward spiral in America is worse. O's jobs scam and political gambit doesn't bode well for us.
There is also no tax on investment income, no capital gains tax, and no death tax. However, somehow this country of about 4 million has accumulated the fourth largest sovereign wealth fund in the world, so we sure aren't under taxed!.
The key to prosperity remains what it always has been: thrift. For individuals, families, and nations.
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