Comments on: How Much Do the Wealthy Really Pay in Taxes?

By: full skinny on taxes « Thought Shop

full skinny on taxes « Thought Shop — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 20:03:19 +0000

[...] skinny on taxes By Brian Hayes Taking into account federal income tax, payroll tax, state income tax, property tax, and various other local taxes, [...]

By: Nicole

Nicole — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 00:51:34 +0000

@The Republic,
It’s always easy to point fingers at people who do not have isn’t it? It’s easy to assume that someone who goes to work everyday, pays their taxes and tries to make an honest living is lazy and ignorant. It is easy to say, go educate yourselves and make more money. And it seems to be a common thought among “those” extremely high income earners, that we lower and middle income peoople should be ever so grateful to you “Gods” who so mercifully bestow jobs upon us. You have no idea what it is like to work 60 hours a week at two jobs to take care of an 80 year old grandmother who worked from the time she was 12 years old until she was 70 and only receives $700 per month in social security benefits. And of that $700 about $550 goes to medication because our healthcare system is an abomination. I’m 25, single and I don’t have children, so NO, I don’t get all of my tax dollars back. You talk about your taxes and how you have to pay out in taxes what many people don’t make in a year, no matter how much they work. If I had to guess, I would say you have never done one hard days work in your whole ungrateful life. Get over yourself. Because when it all comes down to it, we are talking about quality of life and how money plays into that. I make a little less than $35000 a year busting my ass. I don’t get handouts and I don’t ask anyone for anything. So don’t assume that just because someone does not make six figures and may not be as educated about tax laws as they should be, that they are sitting around on the sofa. The fact of the matter is that most of us are too busy busting our asses trying to build a life, to spend hours on end learning tax law, or even thinking about the lives of the super rich. I don’t hate anyone who has more than me, just like I don’t hate anyone who has less than me. I also do not blame anyone else for the things in my life that are not the way I want them to be (you could take a page from that book because you seem hell bent on blaming the less fortunate for bringing down the rich). So stop playing the victim, because we people who are “poor beyond words” don’t feel the least bit sorry for you!

By: The Republic

The Republic — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 19:02:37 +0000

To those extremely low income earners, you need to get off the sofa and educate yourselves about federal taxes. Most likely, you didn’t even need to file and if you did, after deductions, you should have had every dollar returned to you. You are either doing something wrong or you are lying to us about your situation. Out of the 132 million tax returns, 44 million will legally and correctly ask for every dollar back. 14 million didn’t even have to file, you should be one of them.

I’m not a Bush fan or anything, but it’s only fair to point out that when everyone was complaining about all of his so-called tax cuts for the rich, he more than alleviated taxes for the poor. He doubled the amount of zero income filers during his presidency to almost 50 million Americans. That’s right; he doubled the amount of Americans who pay absolutely nothing in federal income tax. More than a third of Americans now get all of their money back. How can they complain? Some of these people actually get more money back than was taken out; they get paid to be citizens.

One more thing, allowing the politicians to prey upon your weaknesses by inciting your class hatred of the rich actually ends up hurting you more. They have whipped you into a frenzy and with that, you give them your blessing to take from the rich all they can steal. In return they take just a small amount from you and a little more control. The problem here is that you have nothing to give. The rich can be taken from and will survive in the end, but you, you are poor beyond words and even a little can tear your whole world apart. You now have nothing but what the government allows you to have. And so it goes, as in with all governments throughout history, you have sowed the seeds of this countries undoing.

“Despite a voluminous and often fervent literature on “income distribution,” the cold fact is that most income is not distributed: It is earned.”

By: Financial Samurai

Financial Samurai — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:34:25 +0000

@janice, I only make $10,000 a year, so I agree, anybody making over 200k is a douchebag! That’s why we poor folks who earn below the poverty line of $25k/yr shouldn’t have to pay any taxes! Fight on!
Financial Samurai´s last blog ..The Katana: Favorite Posts of The Week Ending 11/15

By: janice

janice — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:39:45 +0000

Warren Buffet is not building factories for you to work in.
Nobody is building factories for you to work in in the US.
Everything is backwards and wrong and outsourced. We need to get together and make sure a good chunk of our tax dollars are used to invest in small businesses in America, by Americans like me and you. And to make sure the infrastructure is strong, the workers are healthy and educated, and that people everywhere are healthy, inspired, happy and secure enough to buy what we make in the factories and pay a good price for American quality, and that what we make is good and safe and awesome so that people will seek it as the best stuff in the world.

By: janice

janice — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:24:31 +0000

Here is reality for many intelligent, worthwhile, non-douchebag yuppie Americans:
I’ve been earning under 15,000 a year my entire life with the exception of one year when I made just over 20,000 because I invested a small inheritance in education and equipment for my industry at the time. The equipment became obsolete so my industry became service again (coffee, pizza, wiping butts). To say that a person earning over $200,000 a year is not rich is wrong if not a very mean lie.
In any city in the US, including NYC and San Francisco, anyone can easily find a room in a shared apartment for $12,000 a year. Even if such massive incomes were taxed 30%, $12,000 is well under 10% of their annual income of $200,000. I on the other hand, earning gross $12,000 a year cannot possibly find any indoor dwelling in a city or the deep woods for less than 25% of my annual income. more than 10% of my annual income goes to state and federal taxes if I fill them out properly, as I cannot afford a tax attorney or accountant, and about 25% is witheld and I have to do confusing paperwork with no training and no outside help to get some of it back the following year! Another 6.25% (sales tax) of the money I spend is gone (I have nothing left at the end of the year so that takes in what the filthy rich who manage to save $300 a year call “disposable income”), and that’s about 5% of my total yearly income. About a third each of my income goes to renting a room in a shared apartment in a farflung neighborhood I don’t like, and to owning and maintaining a car so I can get to my job 20 miles away, and occasionally visit with old friends. Every year I can expect a quarter dollar raise.

By: Leonard

Leonard — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:13:13 +0000

Too bad many people in the top 400 percent get most of their income from dividends and capital gains not from actually salaries. These areas have only a 15% tax rate. The top 1% of US pays more than the bottom 95%. Hell, something close to 40% don’t pay taxes at all. I take home 52% after taxes and employee benefits. Then I give them salaries after that. With a president like this, it is no wonder that people would prefer to take from the wealthy and be an advocate of higher taxes on the wealthy. Thanks but you have to realize something, when we leave to find some other place where we can make and keep our money, and not give it to those who leech off an ineffective government, we take our money and jobs with us. Higher taxes hurt small business and that hurts employment numbers and prices and ultimately hurts everyone.
This was once a land of opportunity where people would have a dream of becoming rich and allowing your family to live comfortably and set themselves a higher goal. Now it seems this is becoming a land of entitlement. If you want money, don’t ask for it. Earn it.

By: BILLY79

BILLY79 — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:49:52 +0000

@Financial Samurai,

“If what you say is true on “everybody pays the same effective taxes” after $50,000, then there would be NO DEBATE and movement to push for a flat tax!”

You honestly think that if rich knew this they would just say screw it and still not want lower taxes? A lot of corporations America lately has proven that greed overrules reason or compassion every time. Even if the bottom 99% paid 90% tax rates and top 1% only paid 5% the top 1% would still say they pay too much in taxes and spend millions legally bribing(campaign contributions/pacs/527’s) our congress to get their 5% rate lowered. What many forget is that top 1% got there on the backs of the bottom 99%.

By: Kosmo @ The Casual Observer

Kosmo @ The Casual Observer — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:44:20 +0000

@Dana, – We’re talkig about two slightly different things in regards to foreign income. I’m referring to a taxpayer who was a fulltime resident during the year, but has foreign income. There’s a formula related to this – it’s not a straight dollar amount. I don’t have much familiarity with your scenario – a US citizen living abroad.

Capital gains are taxed at a lower rate in an effort to encourage people to invest in capital assets. You should only pay capital gains if you actually sell the asset during the year. If I buy a stock that doubles from $100 to $200, I don’t have a taxable gain – until I sell the stock.
Kosmo @ The Casual Observer´s last blog ..Why I Hate HSBC (again)

By: Dana

Dana — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:44:37 +0000

@MyLifeROI and Cosmo,

Don’t know if this helps, but I worked abroad for a couple years, and when filing my tax returns here in the states I had to declare any foreign earned income above (if I remember correctly) $89,000. This was a few years ago, 2005-2007, so the rate might be a bit higher now. The amount earned above $89k was taxable.

Interesting discussion. I have often wondered why Capital Gains income is not taxed at the same rates as any other income. But I mean income that you use, not that just goes back into investments. Example, if you deduct $45,000/year from your investments to live on, get taxed at the ~16% rate. If you deduct $100k/year to live on, get taxed at the ~28% rate.