Anyone Here Being Slaughtered By Taxes Knowing The 1% Pay No Income Taxes And Few Other Taxes

[DanieRains]

No Social Security taxes, and no Medicare taxes?

They accumulate wealth TAX FREE and I pay half of what I make or more in taxes every year when you count property tax.

Anyone else feel like you are being screwed?

[Midnight Writer]

1. I don't mind paying taxes. I do resent paying a higher rate than a billionaire.

[uponit7771]

2. +1

[Sherman A1]

5. Same here

Just sent in my real estate taxes for the year and looking at the breakdown, it seems to be even with an increase this year, a pretty good deal.

[Greybnk48]

35. I feel the same.

I would even pay higher taxes to take care of people who needed it. But it really grinds me that we have useless social predators (1%) feeding off of our country.

They should lose their citizenship if they want out of our social compact/contract.

[ck4829]

50. +1

[TeamPooka]

3. "Slaughtered By Taxes" interesting choice of words

[davidmp]

4. being screwed is correct

We need to go back to what taxes were like in he 50's

[gab13by13]

6. AS a country,

we rank pretty far down the list of being taxed. Maybe one reason is that the rich and corporations don't pay their fair share?

What really bothers me are the people who only have Social Security as income, they got a whopping 1.6% increase next year. I'm lucky I have a pension and some other investments and things are getting tighter with me because of some unexpected medical bills.

The biggest problem in America, economic wise, is income inequality. We may even see the return of company stores, Walmart can start giving its workers tokens that can only be redeemed at Walmart.

[tblue37]

19. Didn't they actually do that this year with Black Friday bonuses (as limited time discounts)? nt

[former9thward]

7. I notice when things like what is in the OP are posted there are never any actual facts.

So I will provide them. It is absolutely false the top 1% or the top anything are not paying any taxes, income or otherwise. Our tax system is very progressive despite the rumors.

Table 1: Summary of Federal Income Tax Data, 2016
Note: Table does not include dependent filers. “Income split point” is the minimum AGI for tax returns to fall into each percentile. Source: IRS, Statistics of Income, Individual Income Rates and Tax Shares (2018).


Top 1% Top 5% Top 10% Top 25% Top 50% Bottom 50% All Taxpayers

Number of Returns

1,408,888 7,044,439 14,088,879 35,222,196 70,444,393 70,444,393 140,888,785

Adjusted Gross Income ($ millions)

$2,003,066 $3,574,828 $4,729,405 $6,950,051 $8,979,705 $1,176,907 $10,156,612

Share of Total Adjusted Gross Income

19.72% 35.20% 46.56% 68.43% 88.41% 11.59% 100.00%

Share of Total Income Taxes Paid

37.32% 58.23% 69.47% 85.97% 96.96% 3.04% 100.00%

Average Tax Rate

26.87% 23.49% 21.19% 17.84% 15.57% 3.73% 14.20%

[Mariana]

9. That's true for Federal Income Tax.

What do those numbers look like when the FICA taxes are included?

[former9thward]

43. I don't know.

Those are relatively minor taxes compared to the total. But since the OP is making the charge that the upper percent does not pay ANY income taxes or other taxes -- shouldn't the OP provide some facts to prove that claim?

[Mariana]

44. I agree the OP is wrong about that. nt.

[DanieRains]

53. Accumulated Wealth Is Not Income

Unrealized capital gains is not income.

Stock portfolio doubling in value is not income.

Income is what gets taxed.

Working.

[uponit7771]

12. Hyperbole for effect, I am paying thousands more in taxes because I have more than two kids

[Igel]

16. It's hard to read.

The takeaway:

The top 1% pay, according to those numbers (for 2016) 37.32% of all individual federal income taxes. Their share of income is 19.72%.

The bottom 50% pay 3.04% of all individual federal income taxes. They bring home 11.59% of the income.

Details matter.

Payroll taxes are calculated separately from "federal income taxes", and for that the lower 50% is going to pay probably a bit less than 25%. They pay the same rate on the first $120k or so of income, but by definition are in the bottom 50% of income so they won't hit the cap, or the halfway point to the cap. The 1% blow through the cap quickly, but pay the full amount on income up to that cap.

This obviously doesn't include state taxes--which tend to track with federal income taxes. It also doesn't account for sales tax, but since the wealthy spend more they'll pay more income tax. Zucman's analysis was clever, but too clever for critical thinking: He made opposite assumptions a few years ago when *they* were necessary for reaching a conclusion. Today people quote both sets of numbers, both conclusions, which are based on opposing assumptions. His supporters don't care that they're asserting both A and not-A are true at the same time; his critics are viewed as being incorrect as far as sound policy and politics are concerned, and therefore of no importance.

It'll be interesting to see how the tax burden distribution changes for '18 and '19 (I suppose the '18 figures are there, but meh), but I don't expect they'll change much. SALT isn't going to affect the lower 50% much, and so it might shift some of the tax burden from the top 1% and spread it a bit, but even then probably not much.

[DanieRains]

31. Fantastic You Don't Call New Amassed Wealth Income

Thats the trick.

They get wealthier and only pay taxes on income they decide to pay themselves.

They can double their net worth and pay pennies.

Us slaves get taxed, and taxed, and taxed every paycheck, at the counter, and every quarter. Cell phone tax, energy tax, car tabs were $550 for a beat up old Volt.

Tax accumulated wealth as income.

BINGO.

[Amishman]

45. Thank you for the facts. The 1% pay taxes, they pay more than we do as a dollar amount

The real problem is they don't pay their fair share and use loopholes to pay a lower percentage than the middle class (after capital gains).

Need to get the facts straight if we want change.

Edit: corporate America is a different story, plenty of big businesses really do pay nothing due to very creative bookkeeping. Big business needs to open a vein and bleed for our benefit. They are the worst of the greedy bastards

[Drahthaardogs]

30. Its bullshit because it only includes INCOME tax

We all know they play little tricks so what they earn is excluded from income and isctaxed as capital gains, etc.

[Vinca]

8. Yes, it bugs the hell out of me. We're both still self-employed so I have to make quarterly

payments. Every time I write the checks (one to a state we do business in as well), I say it's so Jeff Bezos doesn't have to pay any taxes. In the past I haven't minded paying taxes so much, but the thought our tax dollars are going to golf games and salaries for people like Kellyanne makes me sick. I feel much better paying the local property taxes because I can see the snow plow going up the road and know we have a good school, etc.

[Recursion]

11. Jeff Bezos pays taxes

He makes $85,000 a year and pays federal and state taxes on it. Amazon pays local and state taxes where it operates. It doesn't pay a corporate tax because it has never made a profit.

[Igel]

18. They're generalizing a bit.

For the last year Amazon paid no federal taxes. Why? Because the last tax-law change allowed faster depreciation.

They depreciated things faster, they had a lot of investment, so they had no net income for federal income tax purposes. Not because the tax rate was low, but specifically because they had no net income to be taxed at any rate.

Because they (and others) depreciated things out faster, it means they won't have that deduction later unless they continue to invest and breakneck rates. Then their taxes should go up. Short-term thinking or proper thinking based on present net value, dunno.

[Recursion]

25. There's no end to the money Amazon can plow back in to its own infrastructure

It would surprise me if they ever paid a corporate tax, and that is a good thing because it means they're spending that money building things and employing people. They've also never paid a dividend; strictly speaking as a capitalist enterprise they're something of a failure.

[ChiTownDenny]

29. Sorry, bruh. I'm calling BS.

$85,000 income qualifies for around $300,000 in real estate. One home, middle class neighborhood.


"Jeff Bezos is dropping $80 million on a set of 3 NYC apartments. Here's a look at the 6 other massive properties his family already owns, from a Seattle estate to a Texas ranch"

https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-owns-five-massive-homes-across-the-united-states-2017-10

[Recursion]

33. The company owns those

He doesn't own his houses. Amazon expenses them as "security". That one, I will grant, is total bullshit and he should pay taxes on the housing as income.

But my larger point is that Jeff Bezos is only "rich" in the sense that if you multiply the number of AMZN shares he owns by their current price, you get a ludicrous figure in the billions. But that's not in any sense realistic.

[ChiTownDenny]

38. Wait, what?

This OP is about paying taxes. Bezos doesn't pay any. Amazon doesn't pay any. WTF are you talking about?
OUT! and have a good day, or whatever.

[Recursion]

40. Bezos and Amazon both pay taxes

Where did you get the idea that they don't? That's nonsense.

Bezos is paid $85K / year, and he pays taxes on that.

Amazon pays local and state and federal taxes, it just doesn't pay a federal corporate tax because it has still not yet made more money than it has spent. What exactly are you wanting Amazon and Bezos to do?

[Vinca]

41. I just say Bezos because he's a random gazillionaire.

[Recursion]

42. Is he?

He doesn't have much cash lying around, and he makes $85K per year. That's a good salary but it's not like he is the source of income inequality in the US.

[Vinca]

46. Unlike poor Jeff, most of us don't own $104 billion in Amazon stock we can peddle next Monday

if we want to. In my book, that qualifies as gazillionaire.

[Recursion]

47. Neither does he

Last edited Fri Dec 27, 2019, 02:57 AM - Edit history (1)

He can't sell it all, and he can't even sell most of it at anywhere near that price. The shares he has sold he's paid taxes on the proceeds from. Isn't that how it's supposed to work? You pay taxes on money, not the potential of money.

[Vinca]

48. What's the phrase the Brits use? Gob smacked. I'm gob smacked you're defending the

uber wealthy so vigorously. Jeff, is that you?

[NewJeffCT]

10. I believe everybody pays SS & Medicare taxes

on their first $137,000 or so of income. That said, the cap should be removed.

Medicare has no wage limit, as far as I know, and if you make over $200,000, you pay an additional tax into Medicare.

[USALiberal]

15. The cap is fair as the payout is also frozen. nt

[Joe941]

17. It's not fair paying a higher percent of income.

The rich should pay in more than they get. That would be far fairer than what we have now. Bernie has a plan to remedy this issue.

[USALiberal]

22. Then tax them higher. SS IS NOT a tax! Lets not mess with it. nt

[Joe941]

24. Yes we want change, not the same failed policies for.the working people!

[CousinIT]

13. Hell yea. n/t

[bamagal62]

14. Yep!

It’s not being able to deduct state and local taxes that’s screwing us. Our tax bill was outrageous last year. We are in Chicago.

[H2O Man]

20. Recommended.

Yes.

[KentuckyWoman]

21. Paying my fair share doesn't make me feel screwed at all.

What I think, if the 1% would pay up, this country could accomplish SOOOOOOOOOO much more.

We could get whatever help is needed to get individuals and families off the streets and into warm houses with decent food. We could provided decent basic medical care to everyone. We could afford the right inspections to be sure the water and food is safe. We could give our soldiers and first responders better pay and benefits and safety equipment. We could educate our citizens so much better.

I have no hard feelings over what I pay. Not ever.

[DanieRains]

32. I Do

I am being robbed.

[lark]

23. Feelings or not - we are totally getting fucked every day and it's a conscious decision by oligarch.

They have stolen most of the money for themselves and are making us, the working class and poor, pay lots more - which is then used to further enrich themselves.

It's a total scam being foisted on the entire world by the like of PUtin, MBS, Johnson and drumpf, to name the public faces of this campaign to change the world back to the barons/serfs model. Guess which we would be?

[Bettie]

26. We don't mind paying taxes

but we resent paying more than billionaires.

[brooklynite]

27. Not a fan of lazy hyperbole...

Last edited Thu Dec 26, 2019, 12:50 PM - Edit history (1)

MOST people, including 1%ers pay taxes.

[brewens]

28. It's worse than that. Many of the 1% are way in the black on our tax dollars. They rake in

more than they pay out. Any that are heavily invested in corporations that do a lot of government business are living off us like the ruling class always did in the past.

[Kaleva]

34. It's been a number of years since I last made enough to pay any income tax.

[aikoaiko]

36. Half or more of what you make goes to taxes?

I don't know where you live, but I hope you get great services and your schools and hospitals are top-notch.

[DanieRains]

37. I Own A Business And Actually Lost Money One Year

Borrow!!!

[RT Atlanta]

39. To some extent, yes

And as others noted, I dont mind and in fact feel honored and privileged I can pay taxes - it means I am working and can provide for my family's needs.

HOWEVER, it does chap me more and more as I get older to see EOY news casts saying Company XYZ paid $0 in taxes (e.g. Apple) while I am busting my tail to pay the taxes.

[ck4829]

49. K&R

[Hoyt]

51. Billionaires pay a lot in Medicare taxes, and they don't get anymore benefits than those who

pay the maximum in Social Security taxes. So, that doesn't really bother me.

If they are truly not paying any income taxes, that would tick me off. But most -- even Bezos -- do pay income taxes. Amazon will pay taxes when they start making more than the spend in expansion, research, etc. And Bezos pays capital gains tax every time he cashes in some of his stock to fund his lifestyle.

I think the last few tax cuts ought to be reversed, a significant estate tax imposed, and the capital gains tax increased.
But, keep in mind that will make it even harder for states and local governments to increase taxes.

Further, the things some candidates are promising us -- while telling us that millionaires and billionaires will pay for it -- are going to require a lot of million/billionaires to fund.

[Joe941]

52. This is why we need Bernie.