Adding It Up: How Much Tax Does A Taxpayer Pay?

NPR ^ | September 8, 2010 | Tamara Keith

[ClearCase_guy]

They’re paying 24% in taxes? Would they support the Fair Tax? They’d pay less.

[Thermalseeker]

They’re paying 24% in taxes?

I added up my own tax liabilities several years ago and came up with closer to 56%......

[television is just wrong]

I would tend to agree with you on that too.

[sodpoodle]

Not shown on any retail purchases are the tax liabilities built in buy the seller, to cover the cost of doing business.

No-one objects to paying a fair share of taxes to cover the cost of defending this nation other Constitutionally mandated ‘general welfare’ expenses.......but we are at the end of the ‘slippery slope’ with no escape.

[from occupied ga]

This is meaningless for two reasons:

1. It doesn't give their income level or their house value - two important determinants in how much tax you pax, and
2. It only picks a single couple and who knows if it is representative or not. To be meaningful it would have to pick a statistically significant sample of people at various income levels stratify them and show the results for each stratum. Geography matters too. I suspect that they pay more property tax in Connecticut than they would an Georgia, but probably less than they'd pay in New York or New Jersey for a comparable house.

So this is just a bullshit article from NPR. Considering the source, it probably grossly UNDERSTATES the tax burden on the productive taxpayers. I know that I pay more than this in the various taxes that are extorted out of me so as to keep the government drones in beer, new cars, and elaborate vacations.

[old and tired]

They’re paying 24% in taxes? Would they support the Fair Tax? They’d pay less.

Really? Right now I also pay more than 50%. 24% actually sounds pretty good to me. Families in the 200k to 500k or 600k in earnings (i.e. many families in the urbanized northeast) are paying the freight for a lot of the country. The really rich can hide their income. But the HENRY's (High Earners - Not Rich Yet) are slammed by the AMT and property taxes.

[mrsmith]

“But there are other taxes that people pay indirectly.”

Pay no attention to the taxes behind the mirror Dorothy...

[BobP]

I added up my own tax liabilities several years ago and came up with closer to 56%......

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Yea it's nearing 60% for some. Makes you sick to think of it. And there's much more on the way.

We are stuck with trillions in lost equity combined with trillions more in debt. Either we reverse this or we are the last generation of Americans. The elections in November are surely our last hope to force the federal beast back into its cage.

WAKE UP AMERICA

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[old and tired]

The more I think about this example, the less I believe it. This guy is paying about $800 a month in car payments. And we're supposed to believe he's paying less than a third of his income in taxes? Yeah, right.

I guess those kinds of car payments are possible for a family in the lower tax brackets, providing they own their home outright. But generally, folks who've troubled themselves to pay off their mortgages don't take out assinine car loans.

[screaminsunshine]

Bull if you add in the Tax cost in every product you buy it is well over 50% of your income. Probably over 60% and going up. There ate Taxes upon Taxes upon Taxes. Now they are yapping about ‘Tax Cuts’. Bull there are not Tax Cuts. The Tax will either remain the same or go up. A lie on its face.

[FreedomPoster]

Their taxes vs. income bar graph is quite deceptive visually. In the first bar graph the width for “other taxes” is way too small compared to the width for “payroll taxes”, given the percentages of each.

There are likely other issues with this presentation (it *is* NPR, after all), but that one just jumped out at me.

[Vaduz]

Increased taxes is a result of not knowing what else to do.

[Calm_Cool_and_Elected]

Exactly. We probably paid 24% when we were their age.

[G Larry]

In 2011:
Federal - 39.6%
State - 5%
SSI & Medicare 7.6%
Sales Tax - 6%
Gas - 50 cents/gal
Property - $3100

That’s somewhere North of 65% paid out to gov’t!

[tiki]

I also think that over-regulation is a tax.

[winodog]

24% ?

BS. Its much closer to 50% if not more

[aruanan]

In 2011:
Federal - 39.6%
State - 5%
SSI & Medicare 7.6%
Sales Tax - 6%
Gas - 50 cents/gal
Property - $3100

That’s somewhere North of 65% paid out to gov’t!

And a slave of the antebellum South had a lifetime expropriation of his production by his slaveowner of about 10%.

[Grammy]

This is horse feathers. We own a small business and our taxes are over 50%, just with a quick tally. We live in a state with no income tax and very low property taxes.

[Darteaus94025]

Let’s not forget the tax of inflation. When the government just prints money w/o backing, the value of everything you have denominated in dollars just got cheaper.

SSI of your employer is a cost incurred by them on your behalf. I don’t know how you’d add that to the mix, but it is a consideration when it comes to hiring and costs.