Comments on: Income Taxes Paid By Individuals in 2007

By: Ron

Ron — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 22:33:49 +0000

Tax rate disparity pales in comparison with income disparity, plus the poor fight and die for the wealthy. You should be glad people aren’t smart enough to revolt. Oh, yes, I forgot, the wealthy control education and the news media, too.

By: MWyman

MWyman — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:43:37 +0000

This is fascinating data. One wonders why the government even taxes those in the bottom 50% at all; it seems to me that, with only 2.9% of the net share of income tax reveue, that would make more sense. That 2.9% burden could easily be passed off on higher brackets. The bottom half is already paying sales and county taxes anyway, so it’s not like they would be totally tax-free anyway. Anyway, interesting things to consider. I think data like this should be required reading in schools.

By: Bruce Barnes

Bruce Barnes — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 04:30:15 +0000

The 69th Congress passed and President Calvin Coolidge signed into law the U.S. Revenue Act of 1926 that lowered the maximum income tax rate for 1925 and thereafter to 25 percent from 46 percent. In 1932 the maximum rate was raised to 63 percent but, by then the damage had been done. Too much money was pulled out of the general economy and it started to collapse in 1929. The middle class could no longer buy products so the wealthy could no longer make money by making products. ¬

Our economy will not recover until the balance between the haves and have-nots is restored. There is too much money chasing too little profits in this country so investors are holding or investing overseas. Only the government remains to stimulate the economy so the government must tax the wealthy in order to spend without borrowing. This will restore the balance and the economy.

President Teddy Roosevelt made the case in 1906 when he argued in favor of continuing the inheritance tax. “The man of great wealth owes a particular obligation to the state because he derives special advantages from the mere existence of government.”

Starting in 1986, the marginal income tax rate has declined from 50 to 35 percent for individuals and from 51 to 39 percent for corporations. This has exacerbated the growing inequality of income and wealth to the point that the wealthiest 1 percent has more wealth than the bottom 95 %. Only the wealthy have benefited from these lower marginal income tax breaks and in so doing they have taken from the many to enrich the few. There isn’t any doubt that government policies and actions have benefited the wealthy more than the poor and middle class.

Inflation is when too many consumer dollars are chasing too few goods. That is not the case now and we do not have inflation. What we have is too many investor dollars trying to find a good return. Interest on investor dollars is low and the wealthy are having a hard time trying to find a place to invest. Speculation on oil sent the price of oil way to high and killed demand. Companies can’t sell their products, so stock prices and bond interest are low. Nobody invests if they cannot find a return.

The Fed is trying to undo the mess caused by not regulating the free market by pumping trillions of new dollars into the banks to cover bad investments. The government is trying to stimulate demand for goods by hiring the middle class to work. Without taxing the wealthy, the government will increase the money supply and the demand for goods which will cause inflation. Paid for universal health care with one third paid by the wealthy will be a big help for the economy and society.

By: PerotCharts

PerotCharts — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 19:25:39 +0000

Bruce:
We, too, applaud their patriotism. And it looks like they won’t have to wait much longer to feel very patriotic.
Of course, there is no reason they have to wait for higher tax rates in order to hand over more of their money to the government. They can always donate to the government. If they are interested, they can just write a check to “U.S. Treasury,” and send it to Department of the Treasury, 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C. 20220 with a notation in the bottom left hand corner that says, “Donation.”
What’s more, it’s tax deductible! But that would somewhat defeat the purpose of the donation. Foregoing the deduction could elevate them to super patriot status.
Here’s another alternative. Rather than endouraging citizens to ask for higher tax rates, these patriots could encourage Congress and the Administration to spend less. But then where’s the fun in that for Congress?

By: RumorsDaily » Taxes Paid by Individuals

RumorsDaily » Taxes Paid by Individuals — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 15:10:40 +0000

[...] love Perot Charts: [...]

By: Bruce Barnes

Bruce Barnes — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 09:00:27 +0000

I found this on
http://www.irs.gov/taxstats/article/0,,id=102886,00.html
Tax Stats at a Glance
Summary of Collections Before Refunds by Type of Return, FY 2007 [1]
This table shows 138,893,908 individual income tax returns that collected $1,366,241 million. This means that the IRS found an additional 2,177,064 returns and rebated $266 Billion. If I remember correctly, the budget in 2007 was $2.8 Trillion. This means the individual income tax was only 39.3 percent of the budget. Using the collection numbers Employment taxes were 30 percent and corporation income tax was 14 percent. Since high earners have their employment taxes capped and as many people say consumers pay corporation taxes as well as sales taxes, I would think that taxes are pretty evenly spread across the population.

Last week the Los Angeles Times published this article.

“These rich want to pay more

Upper-income earners who actually want to pay higher taxes have launched a public campaign calling for an immediate rollback of the tax cuts enacted under President George W. Bush.

The group, which calls itself “Wealth for the Common Good”, believes that people who have taxable income of more than $235,000 a year should support restoring their top federal income tax rate to 39.6 percent – and now, not in 2011, when the higher rate is scheduled to return anyway.

The group’s founders include Chuck Collins, who inherited some of the Oscar Mayer meat fortune. He co-wrote the 2003 book “Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes” with Bill Gates Sr.”

These wealthy people are the real patriots that care about the good of society.