Via TaxProf comes this news: 51% of income “tax filing units” now pay no federal income tax. While that does not necessarily translate into 51% of the population, it still shows that there is a strong political incentive to pander to those who pay no federal income taxes and to wail against the “rich.”
Being “rich” now means you pay federal income taxes.
In fact, as detailed in this letter from the CBO linked by TaxProf, 30% of “tax filing units” actually get a “refundable credit” from the federal government, meaning they get money from the government.
Quite possibly, your money.
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Ron Coleman
Comments
Speaking as one who receives a "refundable credit", when Social Security and Medicare are taken into account, I am still a taxPAYER.
If 10% is good enough for God, it should be more than enough for Government…
I wouldn't be in a hurry to tell the bottom fifth they're not paying enough. The Democrats would love for the Republicans to start saying that.
the rich still pay a much smaller % of their wealth as tax than their wealth as a % of total wealth (i.e. they own say 90% of the wealth but pay just 50% of the taxes). In other words their tax burden is too low. You can skew the issue by choosing to look only at income tax which is fairly progressive but that misses the boat. We have lots of other taxes, most of which are regressive and the rich by and large do not make their money as income but as capital gains (which are taxed at about half the rate of the top income bracket).
We get a refund, so technically, I guess we're one of those who don't pay. Does that mean I want you, your peers or the wealthy to pay more? No. Don't automatically assume that we leeches are also stupid and selfish. Some of us are paying attention and we want what's best for the economy and our country. Let's face it, if the economy improves, we will be better able to improve our circumstances and rail against the income tax system like everyone else. Yay! Goals!
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