Posted on 09/28/2012 5:54:03 PM PDT by LD Jackson
Fox News has come out with a poll showing overwhelming agreement that all Americans should pay income taxes.
Seventy-nine percent say everyone should pay something, according to a Fox News poll released Thursday. That includes 85 percent of Republicans, 83 percent of independents and 71 percent of Democrats.
According to the IRS, last year approximately 41 percent of tax filers did not pay federal income tax. The Tax Policy Center estimates that will increase to 46 percent this year.
Let’s say there are 150 million in the civilian labor force. I won’t’ adjust for joint filers and small businesses. I think 150 million is probably a good number. That means 150 million report a taxable income. If the number of those who do not pay taxes on that incomes is 46 percent, that leaves roughly 69 million people paying for 300 million from income taxes. That is a sobering ratio. In 1962, 23.7 percent didn’t pay income taxes. By 1990, that number was around 28 percent. Now the number is close to half. Meanwhile, the number of those who are receiving government benefits has also increased by that amount.
I’ve always maintained that if people look past the demagoguery, they will see the cries for "tax the rich" to be already alive and well. In fact, I’ve been in several conversations with those who did not know the current tax structure. Once explained, most realized it’s not the rich who aren’t paying their fair share in taxes. Now they may not agree with raising taxes on the less well off, but at least the wealthy were being punished enough for being wealthy, they concluded.
For example, the top 10 percent of earners, which are those who earn more than $115,000 annually, pay 70 percent of federal income taxes. The bottom 50 pays around 3 percent. In other words, the top 50 percent pay 97 percent of all income taxes. The top 50 percent begins at around $33,000. As for that 1 percent bunch? They earn about 17 percent of all income reported but pay a whopping 37 percent of all income taxes!
I have no problem with taxes. I heard it put once that taxes are the price we pay for civilization. I found that agreeable. But lets dispense with the talking points that the wealthy are not paying enough. Clearly if you look at the breakdown according to earners, a whopping amount is being paid by few. Projected tax revenues for the federal government will reach $3 trillion in 2013. The great bulk of that, 47 percent or $1.4 trillion, will come from income taxes. Income taxes are the government’s largest source of revenue followed by payroll taxes, which makes up one-third of government revenue or $1 trillion.
What about corporate taxes? Why not increase corporate taxes and decrease income taxes? Unfortunately, progressives can’t have it both ways. By virtue of the progressive structure, tax percentages increase according to earnings. In other words, the wages and salaries of workers are greater than the profits of corporations. For a corporation to pay the max in corporate taxes, which is 35 percent, the corporation must report a taxable income of $18 million or greater. Less than that, the rates drops to as low as 15 percent. Can we lower the rate to a even, say, 28 percent on the condition that loopholes and right offs are eliminated, as President Obama suggested? Surely that may spread the burden. But it won’t. It will just mean more revenue for the government, which means more programs for more recipients.
The current structure cannot hold out for long. A country cannot rely on one main source of income forever. Throw in the nasty "divide and conquer" political games, and we setting ourselves up for failure down the road. The more government grows and the more entitlements it creates, the more that dependency will increase and the fewer earners there will be to fund them.
The poor should not pay income taxes. The rich should pay more. I agree. But the definition of poor and wealthy needs to be revised. People simply do not agree that income is so lopsided that 50 percent should be tax exempt.
sarc/
It would be preferable to have no Americans paying income taxes, however, if we must have an income tax, then EVERYBODY should pay it, or does equal protection mean anything?
I used to hope for reducing government (and the total tax burden) by about 50%, but now it looks like even conservatives have found a way to support more taxes.
I used to like this idea also, but now I just don’t want to see any discussion about raising the tax burden anywhere, for anyone, the discussion is going in the wrong direction, there will not be a trade off, only more taxes.
I think the income tax and its IRS henchman are heinous, the 16th Amendment should be repealed and we should go to a 10-15% sales flat tax.
The 17th Amendment is free to go as well, oh and while we are at it, can we get one placing term limits on Kongress?
We really need to do something about that ~ like toss the GOP-e and their running dog lackeys out of the party, and resurrect Reaganism as a goal worth achieving.
Every American already pays taxes, and the lower one’s income, the greater the tax bite.
Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
CDL license Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax,
Fuel permit tax
Gasoline Tax (42 cents per gallon)
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax
Interest expense
Inventory tax
IRS Interest Charges
IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Luxury Taxes
Marriage License TaxMedicare Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Service charge taxes
Social Security Tax
Road usage taxes
Sales Tax
Recreational Vehicle Tax
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone federal excise tax
Telephone federal universal service fee tax
Telephone federal, state and local surcharge taxes
Telephone minimum usage surcharge tax
Telephone recurring and non-recurring charges tax
Telephone state and local tax
Telephone usage charge tax
Utility Taxes
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax
And, don’t forget. business do not pay taxes, their customers do in the form of higher prices.
Government is so big and bloated these days, they no longer have to get approval to raise taxes, they just call it a fee and keep on rockin.
They pass those taxes on to you!
NO ONE ESCAPES TAXES
Still the federal personal income tax is a primary source of class envy and abuse. It's a failed federal program and should be abolished.
I don’t think ANY of us should be paying income tax.
Earnings should not be taxed.
Get rid of the 16th amendment and gut government down to a constitutional level. Then, and only then can we talk about raising money outside of what the Constitution says can be collected.
Don’t get me started on property taxes.. Think you own your home? stop paying the taxes to find out who really owns it.
Reagan would realize the problem now is not getting people off the tax roles, it is replacing the tax code that encourages this ever growing government with one that places limits on how much the Gov can spend.
You can track the Progressive take over of the US Govt to the implementation of a progressive Income tax. Until you replace a tax code that hides the bulks the bulk of taxation with one that is broader and more transparent the takers will always vote for more from the payers.
Yep, the Income tax is the root of all the evil in our political system.
I get the sense there’s something amiss in these comments.
Bet that'd put an end to the stuff on more taxes, or balancing the budget on the low income sectors.
But that’s not the prime motive behind the Democrat voters.
I'm going to have to disagree with you on this one; property-tax is evil. Why? Because it is the de facto assertion that you cannot own land, and therefore cannot be self-sufficient as a valid method to protest what your tax is used for... IOW, if you don't like what the government's doing and refuse to pay your "protection" they come and kick you off your land.
I'd much rather have a sales tax and/or a flat-rate, no-exemption, no-credit, no-rebate, no-exception income-tax.
“the Income tax is the root of all the evil in our political system”
I agree.
I think the poor should pay income taxes, especially if they are getting a lot of redistributed money from other workers. They need to have skin in the game too, they need to have some pride knowing they pay income taxes too.
Personally I think nobody should pay taxes on what they earn because it’s an even exchange, and we go back to funding the government by import fees and tariffs, and they can vary by the relationship we have with each particular country.
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