The U.S. Income Tax Is Already Steeply Progressive (Taxpayers Slide Downhill)

ATR ^ | 7/28/10 | Jeremy Weltmer

[Andrea19]

• ...Income taxes as a portion of a person’s total tax liability is 7.9 times larger for the top 20 percent of taxpayers as opposed to the bottom 20 percent, while payroll taxes as a portion of a person’s total tax liability remains relatively constant across the entire population.
• Many low-income individuals who owe no taxes because of the standard exemption, the personal exemption, the child credit, and the earned income credit end up making a profit off of filling out a return through “refundable” credits, of which the earned income credit is the most common. Moreover, one can collect these “refunds” whether or not one owes any taxes, which disincentivizes upward mobility.
• As the New York Times reports, “the Top 5 percent in income earners — those households earning $210,000 or more — account for about one-third of consumer outlays, including spending on goods and services, interest payments on consumer debt and cash gifts, according to an analysis of Federal Reserve data by Moody’s Analytics. That means the purchasing decisions of the rich have an outsize effect on economic data...”

Read more: http://www.atr.org/u-s-income-tax-already-steeply-a5255#ixzz0v0NbqVtd

[Andrea19]

Not all amendments to the Constitution are a good idea...

Help promote Conservative activism here & here & here

[Man50D]

These points only illustrate the federal income tax code is out of control. The only effective measure is to scrap the federal income tax code and replace it with a consumption tax. The Fair Tax Act(HR25/S296) will replace all federal income taxes with a national sales tax and abolish the IRS! Fair Tax ping!

[pnh102]

It is ridiculous that half the households in this country pay none of the bills when it comes to running the federal government. Only the FairTax can correct this problem.

[junta]

The Obama “plan” is to try and buck up government’s ability to borrow, but in the end it will kill demand and Bernanke will not be able to save the day.

[genghis]

when 50% do not pay any income tax at all, it is a huge problem.

[genghis]

when 50% do not pay any income tax at all, it is a huge problem.

[sportutegrl]

When taxes are raised, it is almost always disproportionately on 'the rich'. (Some of the new state 'millionaire's' taxes affect ONLY the 'rich'.)

Yet, when taxes are cut, politicians are afraid of enacting a tax cut on the wealthy, so they disproportionately cut taxes for the lower incomes.

After a couple rounds of increases and cuts, we have the system in place today, where over half of the population pay no taxes at all.