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.
I believe our nation’s founders paid a form of property tax.
The problem is that you’re attaching an entire political goal to a person.
What you should do is call for adherence to conservatism and common sense, not to the thinking of a man who is no longer alive to explain it to you.
Besides, if the polls show that broad a field of support for higher federal personal income taxes i"ve got to use everything i can ~ short of thermonuclear warfare of course ~ so, Ronaldus Magnus said STARVE the BEAST and GET OFF THEIR BACKS ~ metaphorically of course, but he had a quick mind and would have been up to speed in a thrice!
Time for Conservatives get on the ball and pick up his revolutionary torch and press on against the forces of evil and greed.
OK......
But it should be the same percentage, because cold hard mathematics say that is the most fair way to do it...
Bring on a FLAT tax.
I would like to end the Earned Income Tax Credit—it just amounts to welfare. Lots of illegal aliens cashed in on this in 2010.
Yes, and the size of the Federal Government MUST be cut in 1/2.
It is TIME to DownSize DC! Close entire Rogue Departments. Move any worthwhile functions back to the States.
It is TIME to force Congress & Senate to telecommute most of the year. Away from DC and the Lobbyists and under the thumb of the electorate.
IT IS TIME!
But it should be the same percentage, because cold hard mathematics say that is the most fair way to do it...
Well, given that less wealthy people pay a higher percent of their income on SS, fuel taxes, utility taxes etc., why.
Making everybody subject to the income tax is not about raising the tax burden. If everyone is subject to the income tax, then those who now pay nothing will suddenly care about how much Congress spends, and what income tax rates are. More people will likely vote for lower spending and lower tax rates. So, the ultimate result (naturally with a time lag) will be lower government spending and lower taxes.
That was the argument that I used to use, now all I hear is that increasing taxes is now universal, like so many things, the republicans and the democrats have combined efforts to figure out how to raise taxes.
the only fair tax is a sales tax...on everything except food.Buy a house....sales tax 1 federal 1 state. No income tax, no cap gains tax...nothing. If you earn a dollar and keep it, it is yours. If, on the other hand, you spend it, the govt. gets a chunk from EVERYBODY.
Maybe so; but the abolition of the poll tax and the inclusion/encouragement of the non-producers as voters drastically altered the structure of things.
Take Women's Suffrage, I'm not sure that it was a good thing: before it the man of the family voted for the family as a unit - this system was somewhat predisposed to keep families together - but with the introduction of women's suffrage voting shifted from a center of the family-unit to that of an individual. This, in turn, gave the women the incentive to use government to create a safety-net so that they no longer needed men as providers, they could rely on government instead.
Yes there's a lot of other influencing factors; but I'm simply presenting the one facet to illustrate how what was once a stable system could become vastly different with just a small change in the conditions/procedures.
To tie it back into property taxes -- before when the people that were directing government [via vote] were landowners they could be reasonably sure that their [land] rights would be respected; now, however, they are a distinct minority and there is profit to be made by violating their rights. (See Kelo v. New London.)
The nation got along perfectly fine without an income tax for over a hundred years till the progressives got their greasy mitts on us.
No prob if you don’t pay taxes... Of course if you do not, you should not be allowed to vote. Simple solution. Why should people not contributing to the finances have any say over their use? This is just common sense.
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