Posted on 03/12/2013 9:48:55 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Many people think that the rich are able to weasel their way out of taxes, but they actually pay an overwhelming majority of the taxes in the United States.
What's more, their share of the tax burden is increasing. The top 10 percent of taxpayers paid over 70% of the total amount collected in federal income taxes in 2010, the latest year figures are available, according to the Tax Foundation, a right-leaning think tank. That's up from 55% in 1986.
The remaining 90% bore just under 30% of the tax burden. And 47% of all Americans pay hardly anything at all -- a fact that got Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney into political hot water last year.
"There's been a huge myth created that the rich aren't paying anything," said William McBride, the Tax Foundation's chief economist. "The rich pay a much higher rate than the poor."
These numbers may not tell the whole story though. The tax code is getting more progressive, said Roberton Williams, a senior economist at the centrist Tax Policy Center. In 1986 there were just two tax rates -- 15% and 28%. Now there are seven income tax brackets, going from a low of 10% to a high of nearly 40%.
While taxes on investment income have declined a bit since 1986, incentives like child care and income tax credits for the poor have been greatly expanded.
But the rich are able to take advantage of tax breaks too. That's why Williams said there's a popular notion that the wealthy are somehow cheating the tax man. In fact, the Tax Policy Center found last year that there about 4,000 households with incomes over $1 million that were not paying anything at all.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
This why your claim that illegals pay taxes is suspect.
WELCOME TO THE PARTY, PAL!
They trot this article or one just like it every year during tax season.
Of course they do! Does anyone expect an EITC applicant, WICs receiving, Section 8 housed, TANF/SNAP enabled, EBT armed leeching charger would actually “pay their fair share?”
This country consists of four groups: 1)diseased, thieving, rapist, murdering illegals who choke public resources for education, health and government services; 2)’victim’ ethnic groups that identify with their dear leader and feel entitled to “getting paid”; 3) guilt-ridden white people who are enthralled at the possible adoration of 1) and 2); 4) Actual Americans who work and go about their business who wonder why they are so hated.
Obama: class warrior #1.
He smears the rich to get their money.
He smears the rich so the young will not aspire.
He smears the rich to increase the national debt.
He smears the rich so they will leave America.
Obama has a plan to destroy America before the entire world.
He will do it in a way that allows his hands stay clean.
He will be able to blame everyone but himself.
He will be able to say “They did it to themselves.”
End of class warfare as we know it.
You are spewing class warfare hatred. Does it make you feel better? Or, perhaps you’d like to get on the bandwagon to ABOLISH the federal income tax.
You are an apologist sympathizer.
You left out the fifth group: (the holy-er-than-thou, we know what’s best for you, you’re not paying your fair share you rich bastards) Democrat left-wing Liberals who, for the most part, seem to be running this country into the ground.
no- they comprise groups 1, 2 and 3....
I have to agree with Gaffer here. F*** PC bull****...someone needs to tell it like it is!
Tell it to Muawiyah.....with Muawiyah...complaining about being raped financially, et al is “Class Warfare”....apparently, he’s been hiding in a hole throughout the entirety of Obama’s administration(s)
And it's this growing issue of income inequality that seems to anger people the most. Overall salaries and wages haven't even kept pace with inflation over the past few years.
And why is it that most of the gains have gone to the people at the top?
Well that will inevitably happen in a stagnant or shrinking economy because more people are unemployed, under employed or working part time.
In a stagnant economy it is an employers market the employer can afford to pay lower wages and give less generous raises.
This is Obama’s economy. He can no longer blame the poor economy on Bush because he and the Democrats have had their way for over 5 years.
This failing economy is the results of rampant socialist policies and a hate the rich campaign led from the top by Nancy Pelosi and Obama.
The rich may be fairing better than the middle class but only because the laws of economics dictates that they will.
You live in Georgia, a state tha receives far more per tax dollar than my state does.
Ostensibly, that means we have lots of people working and paying “into the system.” And yet, my state is one of the most liberal in the nation.
When you figure out CT for me, let me know.
You are an advocate for the continuation of the federal income tax system. That makes you an enemy of the people of the United States and a rich man’s toady.
"The rich alone use imported articles, and on these alone the whole taxes of the General Government are levied. … Our revenues liberated by the discharge of the public debt, and its surplus applied to canals, roads, schools, etc., the farmer will see his government supported, his children educated, and the face of his country made a paradise by the contributions of the rich alone, without his being called on to spend a cent from his earnings." --Thomas Jefferson to Thaddeus Kosciusko, 1811.
H O W E V E R ...
Justice John Marshall had also officially clarified that Congress is prohibited from laying taxes in the name of state power issues, essentially anything which Congress cannot justify under the Constitution's Section 8 of Article I, the limited powers which the states have delegated to Congress.
"Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States." --Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
So to me, the reason that the rich constantly look for tax loopholes to keep Congress from stealing their wealth is that rich are probably not aware of Justice Marshall's case precedent which limits Congress's power to lay taxes.
Otherwise, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention arguably left it up to rich USA citizens to police Congress to make sure that Congress worked within its Section 8 limited powers.
Cut the cr*p ~ I advocate abolishing the federal income tax and all at once you people kvetching about it’s problems want us to keep it ~ who you working for? Soros?
What is the $ amount where the top 10% begins?
Under the current TOTALLY UNFAIR tax system, everyone has a reason to complain except the politicians who use the IRS agents as their own personal intemidators (Gestapo) against the people and the IRS agents themselves who are employed on the government’s teat. An across the board flat tax % system would change all of that. No more IRS intimidation and no more politicians passing tax law for us and exempting themselves and their corporate lobbyist friends and no more politicians playing both ends against the middle for personal gain. Thus explaining the reason the current system won’t be changing any time soon.
Much less than most think. One claim:
...a family income of $142,300 or more in 2010 would have put you in the top 10 percent of income; a net worth of $952,500 would have put you in the top 10 percent of wealth...
Lucky for my wife and I, we’ll never be considered wealthy.
I am advocating nothing. I am simply stating that Gaffer’s observation was dead on. You seem fixated on labeling me as some “class warfare enthusiast” just because I agree with Gaffer’s supposition. Relax and have a Coke and a smile...:-)
Gaffer supports continuation of the problem ~ the income tax.
DH and I are near the top with combined incomes. I haven’t had a raise in three years, but my taxes and cost of living keep going up. We don’t make anywhere near even 1/2 way to 7 figures, but pay 6 figures in income taxes. I expect that # to go up again this year. In addition I am losing more and more of my freedoms with the gun grabbing morons here in Colorado. Please tell me how I am getting richer and richer and benefitting out of proportion? But then it is evil of me to even ask the question..... /s
This is that to which I was referring, FRiend. Nowhere in this description does Gaffer advocate ANYTHING. He simply categorizes our current population into four distinct categories with which I agree wholeheartedly.
You’re all nuts then ~ there are at least 5,287 and one-half different groups and their all mad as h...
We usta'din't have a direct federal tax on individuals. Now we have them checking our toilet lids.
It is long overdue to FIX the problem!
Well of course I was speaking in generalities.
The people that will truly benefit from falling employment opportunities are owners of large corporations or holders of stock in the same.
Especially in an economy like this where profits are going up but companies are not expanding due to fears of future tax increases and regulations.
It is government that is causing the growing disparity and the only thing that government can do about it are things that Obama will never agree to; tax cuts and the curbing of regulations
And you are a one track song.
Fella, I don’t get one dime or yours or Federal money. Your state is a liberal suck sound.
The topic is federal income taxes ~ not sociology.
5,287? Do tell...
There was this thing called
The Sixteenth Amendment
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.
It permits the imposition of an income tax (on the rich or poor).
Of course there are those that believe it was never properly ratified by the states.
that is a fact I overlooked and I whole heartedly agree with you and our Constitution
Changing by the moment.
The solution:
Abolish the 16th Amendment. Kill income tax.
Institute a national sales tax. Those who spend more, pay more, so the rich will still pay more, but creating and holding wealth will be promoted.
Shift Social Security and Medicare to individual control (and responsibility). I would even be willing to see a law that mandates long term savings for retirement and health care, but the individual decides how it is spent.
There, problem fixed!
The income tax was thought to be simpler to administer than a change in excise taxes because there were so few rich people and corporations to deal with ~ as compared to a vast flow of products and commodities.
Today's technology makes it much easier to tax products and commodities going in and out of the country. Taxing income requires that the federal government come into direct contact with working people ~ which is just wrong.
We could also tax oil like the Europeans do. There a number of things that can be done that are less costly and angst ridden than the federal income tax.
Okay....but I hear that argument all the time......govt spends more here than there, etc. and always to the advantage of northeastern states.
While the total government inflow/outflow numbers for say, Georgia, is larger that Connecticut, you have to realize Georgia has almost three times the population. If you were to examine the per capita spending for both states you would see that the government spends about $2000 more per person in Connecticut.
The other aspect you have to realize is that this entitlement spending for TANF, WICs, Section 8, SNAP, Federal Grants, School loan grants are manipulated and likely plussed up in states where the Democrats want to get a foothold. Connecticut is already in the tank and the entitlement/grant maintenance isn’t as high.
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