Posted on 06/14/2007 11:43:14 AM PDT by bruinbirdman
Last week, Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee released a draft of their tax plan that would raise the highest income tax rate by 4.3 percentage points to 39.3 percent immediately. And because the proposal doesn't extend the Bush tax cuts, the highest income tax rate would rise to the neighborhood of 44 percent after 2010; this would lift the top federal income tax rate higher than it was even under Bill Clinton, says the Wall Street Journal.
Moreover, families with incomes between $250,000 and $500,000, the "marginal" tax rate paid on the next dollar of earned income could soar to 80 percent, or in some cases even above 100 percent. The point of this revenue grab is to pay for making families with earnings under $250,000 a year exempt from the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT):
**Without legislation this year, the number of Americans who pay the AMT will rise as much as six-fold to 23 million.
**Even those with incomes as low as $60,000 could pay the AMT in some high-tax states.
**Maryland's Chris Van Hollen, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, has said his party risks a tax revolt in 2008 without some kind of AMT patch.
So Democrats are proposing to raise taxes on three million Americans in order to exempt 20 million from the AMT, says the Journal:
**The wealthiest 1 percent of Americans already pay more than one of every three income tax dollars into the Treasury.
**Under the Ways and Means proposal, the share of all income taxes paid by the top 1 percent would rise to nearly 40 percent.
**The top 2 percent would pay roughly as much as the bottom 98 percent of all taxpayers.
Source: Editorial, "100% Marginal Tax Rate," Wall Street Journal, June 14, 2007.
100% tax rates! DNC chairman Moa must be happy.
The majority of Americans must want this. We are a representative democracy, after all, and since their chosen ideology is now in power, it must be what they want.
Well, the Sheep have finally gotten what they wanted. May they be truly thankful for what they are about to receive.
Stupidity knows no bounds. This tax hike would be passed off to the consumer.
Huh?
Didn’t I read that John and Theresa Kerry paid about 16% in taxes in 2003?
How do the rest of us get that sort of treatment?
Yikes. Sorry, I was thinking about another dumb proposal the Demos were trying to push through.
Income tax is no longer your money, therefore BOHICA. This time with a little more gusto.
Please tell me how else can we pay for the socialist programs for the fine citizens of Mexico?
You ain’t seen nuthin’ yet.
This is sure to slow down the economy fast and big time.
Read the tag line.
Simple...
They only earned what Johnny boy makes as a Senator and whatever Terezzzzza is paid by Heinz or whoever pays her (which is probably out of a trust anyways).
Income tax is an “earned” money tax. Therefore, when you invest in bonds, municiple bonds, stocks, and hedge funds, you are subject to the capital gains tax (if it’s over calander year’s time between purchase and sale of said financial insturments). Interest earned on Munis are tax exempt for federal purposes (and depending upon your state’s tax code, could be tax free for the state income tax purpose too).
The interesting line is “our party is headed for a tax revolt”
UH DUH! YA THINK!?!? Maybe they’ll sink themselves and do just that. Perhaps it’d be worth the 2 years of high taxes to bring about a revolt, but alais, I have NO hope in the American people to wake up once the taxes GO up. If they’d stop hijacking our paychecks and made us cut a check, we’d have already revolted on this issue.
Uh, abolish the AMT and poof! they don’t have to go through all of these machinations. And it’s good politically for the dems if they do. The republicans would be SOL if the dems did this, because the republicans would never again be known as the prty of “low taxes” (snort).
When he refers to a "tax revolt" you just know what he's thinking about, AK-47s and all.
What consumer? This is likely to nail my paycheck directly. There isn't any "consumer" to absorb it. It means disposable income that I won't be spending. Less reason for businesses to have employees selling goods and services that I won't have money to purchase. My experience will be multiplied by lots of others who won't be spending money that has been taxed away.
If this passes, I'll go to my company payroll administrator and immediately request participation in the key employee income deferral plan. That records my income as a liability on the company books without making it payable and taxable until I request it in the future. I'll stash as much in company matched 401k first, then fallback to deferral to keep my income under the limit.
“This tax hike would be passed off to the consumer.”
Not necessarily. But in the end, how many poor people in your lifetime ever hired you.
The wealthier will stop producing wealth, it won’t be worth it and consequently won’t be needing your help either.
I hardly consider $200,000 per year wealthy anymore considering after taxes you MIGHT be bringing home $85,000. You see they fail to mention the state, sales and property taxes on top of Federal.
The shell game continues.
Inflation, inflation, inflation.
God save the Republic!
Somebody please tell me I’m dreaming! This is nuts!
Sheep... I guess you are referring to so called -republican voters that sat out the last election so they could throw their temper tantrum....
You got what you wanted...
Exactly why Republicans have to specifically state a rate, and
not rely on terminology like ‘tax cuts’.
Let me give them a start, flat rate 7%.
Congressional Democrats are going to take our money and Hillary Clinton is going to take our personal liberty. Moving to Australia is looking better all the time.
Remember the old luxury tax ?
The elites then had their expensive yachts built over seas. The government collected very little revenue.
Ten of thousands of middle class families suffered from the loss of these good paying jobs. It hit the direct ship yard workers and also the secondary set of workers and their families ( nearby restaurant, shopping, entertainment jobs and businesses ).
I plan to stay and fight to take my country back.
Not correct. There is "earned income" (wages, tips, etc.) and there is "unearned income" (dividends, interest, capital gains, etc).
Income tax is owed on any and all "income" (earned and unearned)after all considerations (deductions, allowances, etc.)
yitbos
I never pay the AMT, so that means I already pay more than those with the same income as me. And they should be paying even less?
Predictable Dhimmicrat socialism.
Remember...they aren’t talking about altering the capital gains rates, taking away tax free munis, ect.
Yeah, that guy with six kids shouldn't get more deductions than you. And that retired guy who gets only dividend income on his portfolio should pay more than that fixed 15%.
That's the ticket. If the guy makes more, tax him until he has the same income as everyone else.
And while we're at it. If that guy doesn't make as much as others, give him some more until all are equal.
yitbos
Of course it would be
this is direct result of the change in congressional leadership.
Those who whine about Republicans have no idea of what is really in store, once the redistributionists hold all the cards.
Sure they are. "Ok, for the purposes of this article". It's right in the article:
"And because the proposal doesn't extend the Bush tax cuts,. . ."
GW and a Republican congress lowered taxes on dividends, increased gift tax exemption, increased inheritance tax exemption, increased 401K and IRA contributions, established Health Savings Accounts, increased Education Savings Account contributions, increased personal and dependent exemptions. And more.
yitbos
That has got to be absolute insanity .... of course high level execs will get paid in stock and thus only be subject to capital gains taxes. But a pair of doctors will get SOAKED.
While your at it, don't forget about that rich guys that makes millions. We should really tax his ass.
In fact, that is exactly why the AMT was created. To make those "high level execs" pay more tax.
The problem is, the AMT is flawed. Now it will stick a lot of average Joes who are not CEOs.
yitbos
Slowly but surely, inch by inch, we approach Democrat Tax Nirvana, where the great bulk of income tax revenues are paid by only a tiny minority of less than 10 percent of citizens with taxable income, while the vast majority of voters, because they pay little or no income taxes therefore have a vested interest in maintaining their happy state by voting for continuing Tax the Rich policies. Thus, there is will be no driving political motivation to reduce marginal income tax rates, but strong vote-getting appeal in imposing near confiscatory tax rates on the “rich,” members of that unworthy demographic that according to Al Gore “got lucky in life’s lottery.”
Eh, eh. Once upon a time I had a boss (he owned the company). He advised me one day on efficiency.
"Why should I work my butt off hiring all these people, worrying about their welfare, providing this service and products, if I can't make more than a 5% profit? I might as well sell this company, put my money in Treasury Bonds at 5.5%, and go fishing."
yitbos
Wrong. It means you didn't tickle the right triggers when filing your income tax. I wouldn't have been hit by AMT if I hadn't claimed the my property taxes and minimal home mortgage interest on my investment/rental. I've been hit the last two years. $740 the first time. $940 the next time. My deductions are declared "single, 0". My wife does the same and has extra taken out to compensate for the "marriage penalty". I also lost my oldest son as a dependent.
You will not even hear Republicans refer to the "payroll tax" in the same breath as income taxes. That is the killer of the low income. They all pay it. Over 13%.
Those on the bottom rung are happy enough only to look at "take home pay", never the tax withheld. They may think they are paying no income tax, but everyone of them is hit for payroll tax on everything they earn.
Social Security and Medicare Taxes are income taxes no matter what euphemism they are called. There are no deductions, no credits, no nothing on payroll taxes.
yitbos
Please explain. When I do my taxes, its done with all my deductions. and then compared with the AMT.
Those professional athletes and actors are really disgusting. How dare they demand all that money? Same for those CEOs. Anybody can do that work. And brain surgeons! Their labor is no more valuable than the janitor. Perhaps you should call the janitor when you need brain surgery next time. There may not be any of the "rich guys" interested in spending years getting the proper training.
$250,000/yr isn’t that the new Federal Minimum wage amount? What a coincidence.
I take it you failed to understand the sarcasm in my post.
I didn't hit AMT until 2 years ago. My company went public and dumped about $30K (untaxed) on top of my gross. I use TurboTax for my taxes. It calculates the "normal" way, then AMT at the end of the process. You owe the greater of the two. In my case the difference was $940 this year. If I had not claimed my property taxes and home mortgage interest, the tax I had already paid would have been more than AMT. Once you hit certain income levels, the tax code starts playing little "phase out" games. You don't get to claim the same deductions as other people. The shoves even more of you income into the ravenously high marginal tax rates.
The bottom line is that I've reached the point in annual salary that it doesn't pay to work any harder. In fact, it might pay to work a lot less just to keep the socialist freaks out of my pocket.
The low income earners would scream bloody murder if they were taxed at the same rate that I'm taxed. That $5.15/hour would net a take home of $237 for an 80 hour pay period at my rates. I lose at least 42% of every paycheck to taxes.
yitbos
My parser missed the sarcasm tag
The best way to understand this is that dems are the modern-day incarnation of the communists whose avowed goal is to seize money from those who have some and give it to those who have less.
So do I.
What are the little triggers you speak of?
Don't ever read "The Onion". You'd be in a tither. Its for people who don't need a sarcasm tag.
Then you'll get hit by a bus.
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