"Super rich see federal taxes drop dramatically" (AP report)

[anneboleyn]

Link to full text:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_no_taxes


Excerpt from article:

WASHINGTON – As millions of procrastinators scramble to meet Monday's tax filing deadline, ponder this: The super rich pay a lot less taxes than they did a couple of decades ago, and nearly half of U.S. households pay no income taxes at all.

The Internal Revenue Service tracks the tax returns with the 400 highest adjusted gross incomes each year. The average income on those returns in 2007, the latest year for IRS data, was nearly $345 million. Their average federal income tax rate was 17 percent, down from 26 percent in 1992.

Over the same period, the average federal income tax rate for all taxpayers declined to 9.3 percent from 9.9 percent.

The top income tax rate is 35 percent, so how can people who make so much pay so little in taxes? The nation's tax laws are packed with breaks for people at every income level. There are breaks for having children, paying a mortgage, going to college, and even for paying other taxes. Plus, the top rate on capital gains is only 15 percent.

There are so many breaks that 45 percent of U.S. households will pay no federal income tax for 2010, according to estimates by the Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank.

[orwell]

1. It's a spending problem...

...rinse repeat...It's a spending problem...rinse repeat...

Whoops!

Don't you just hate it when those pesky facts such as record low tax rates for the wealthy get in the way of the story line...

[anneboleyn]

3. Amen, Orwell. It's disgusting, isn't it? A rich guy quoted in the article says he should pay more

But don't raise the taxes on the rich. In fact, we can't even mention it as we will be accused of waging "class warfare." It has gotten to be so sad, and so unfair, that the rich are actually asking to be taxed more to help the economy.

"Still, the wealthy have access to much more lucrative tax breaks than people with lower incomes.

Obama wants the wealthy to pay so "the amount of taxes you pay isn't determined by what kind of accountant you can afford."

Eric Schoenberg says to sign him up for paying higher taxes. Schoenberg, who inherited money and has a healthy portfolio from his days as an investment banker, has joined a group of other wealthy Americans called United for a Fair Economy. Their goal: Raise taxes on rich people like themselves."

[bluetex]

5. Just my luck...

Me and the little lady stroked a check to the IRS on Friday.

Mus' be our incomes fall in right below "the super rich".:( As for Mr. Schoenberg? He can contact me here. I'll give him the details....and he can re-imburse us from his "healthy portfolio".

[anneboleyn]

16. We also sent in a check. We paid more in taxes than the "rich" guy in the article.

And we don't make half a million a year. My husband is a university professor. (Oh I forgot, the republicans think teachers are the richest people on the planet. We are still waiting for our huge extra "teacher check"). Ah, the vanishing middle class.

[FormerDittoHead]

2. Here come the JOBS! n/t

:sarcasm:

[anneboleyn]

4. My thoughts exactly. I thought there would be so many jobs created by the no-tax-paying rich people.

Riiiiiggggghhhhht. That's what the republicans promised! It really makes me angry these creeps will cripple health care for the elderly and the poor while letting their enormously rich campaign financiers pay nothing in taxes.

[ThomWV]

6. 45% Pay no taxes - how many of them are elderly or living below the poverty line?

Something I hate is hearing Republicans complain that half of all Americans pay no taxes at all - yeah, and they are living like they are in the slums of Calcutta.

[bluetex]

8. Really?

.....and they are living like they are in the slums of Calcutta.


Many of our peers, who live in the same neighborhood, drive the same kind of cars, send their kids to the same schools, shop at the same stores and eat in the same restaurants as we do....claim they received a refund on their taxes. Now, perhaps they opted for additional withholding. Maybe they've re-fi'd their home and are paying some crazy interest rate. Maybe they're paying catastrophic medical bills....maybe they're being less than honest. But:

They aren't living in the slums of Calcutta. The folks who are:

What are they doing....personally...to improve their lot? So they can join the ranks of the taxpayers?

[anneboleyn]

9. Oh come on. Don't start with the poor aren't really poor stuff. People are struggling out there

and there is no question that people are losing their homes due to catastrophic medical bills, job losses, etc. Saying they should live like we are in a third world country because you don't think they are poor enough in your eyes is just nasty and uncivilized, friend. People should not be forced to live in third world slums or nineteenth-century tenements before we have universal health care and other basic elements of a civilized country. People are suffering. Talk to people like our older neighbors in our "nice" neighborhood who have decided that they will not be able to afford further medical treatment for the wife who is ill with a treatable but serious illness, as medicare is not paying for enough, and their secondary insurance won't cover most of the treatments. The %20 out of pocket they pay for care (combined with huge bills for their prescriptions) amounted to nearly 15k last year for them. What would they do if the Ryan "plan" passes? They can't even afford things as they are now. They have a home and a decent car, so I guess they aren't poor enough since they aren't in the street.

My husband lived in India for research purposes (in Kolkata as a matter of fact), so he knows how very terrible the poverty is there, and he knows that our poverty here is not the same as their poverty. But to even make a comparison is not fair to your fellow citizens. Why even go there? Why attack your neighbors instead of accepting the fact that the tax system is unfair, and that the middle class pays far more proportionally than the very rich? Many rich people are very honest about this and even volunteer to pay more (see Bill Gates).

I could go on and on but I am sure there is no point. You want to be punitive and see peope suffering in the streets before you will accept that most Americans are two lost paychecks or one major illness away from serious financial trouble. Forget it if they have no health insurance and they need any medical care at all. It's all their fault because they are not helping themselves, I am sure...that's what the Puritans would have argued.

[anneboleyn]

13. They want people to live in the slums of Kolkata. The middle class is disappearing

and the republicans are doing everything they can to be sure this happens.

[Fla_Democrat]

7. Is that the uhm.. top half?

and nearly half of U.S. households pay no income taxes at all.


There are so many breaks that 45 percent of U.S. households will pay no federal income tax for 2010, according to estimates by the Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank.


Well hell, it must be, since it is in a story about how the "Super rich see federal taxes drop dramatically" :think:








:smoke:

[anneboleyn]

10. That part is not clear. Certainly some of those people must be below the poverty line.

[Marr]

22. The super-rich do much worse than pay no taxes-- they are handed tax dollars.

Their businesses have tax dollars shoveled into them in countless ways, laws are written specifically to increase their profit margins, their market gambling is made risk-free by guaranteed government bailouts, etc. The super-rich would be impoverished in a year without government. They're as dependent on government as a tick is to it's dog.

[anneboleyn]

11. Guy makes half a million a year (one year he made 200,000) and pays $2,000 in income tax.

Our relatives paid more in income tax last year, and they did not make anywhere near this gentleman's income. This is the guy quoted in the article who said the rich should pay more in taxes. He "only" made $200,000 the year he paid 2k in income tax.

[TheKentuckian]

14. A kid buying a candy bar paid more in taxes than the prime contractor GE.

That should clarify the issue a little bit.

[anneboleyn]

15. Exactly. The republicans would argue that this is okay.

It all works out in their imaginations.

[spanone]

12. 'mission accomplished'

[anneboleyn]

18. That seems a bit dramatic. However, it would be nice if they paid what the middle class pays

proportionally, that is -- then maybe we wouldn't be in the position of eliminating health care for the poor and elderly. Maybe we could just go back to what they paid under Clinton.

[anneboleyn]

20. Apologies, spanone, I meant to reply to Odin. Yes, mission accomplished indeed.

[Name removed]

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[anneboleyn]

19. That seems a bit dramatic... (!) They should pay at least what the middle class pays

proportionally, that is -- then maybe we wouldn't be in the position of eliminating health care for the poor and elderly. Maybe we could just go back to what they paid under Clinton...

[dionysus]

21. .

:eyes: