Posted on 10/16/2004 3:41:54 AM PDT by LRoggy
After releasing a partial return of the family taxes, we were told that Teresa Heinz-Kerry's tax return indicated a paid rate of about 12% of income.
The dirty little secret of the tax code is that it is not designed to "soak the rich". It is designed to prevent the upper-middle-class from BECOMING rich, while allowing the wealthy to shield their assets in various ways so that the wealthy stay rich
Eloquently stated.
One of a magician's tricks is to get you to look somewhere else, away from his point of deception. When he says, "Keep your eye on the ball" that means watch my other hand if you want to see how I do this, right?
Kerry is telling us to look at the way to bankroll all of his projects by letting the top wage earners take us to utopia.
But what he demonstrates by his own example, is that the very same people who are supposed to lead us to utopia are finding plenty of ways to avoid paying for it! And then guess what? the burden falls to the next folks in line, and that always ends up being you and me!!!
Absolutely! see my post above
Right!!!!
Over the years I have had to explain to high-income workers ( doctors, lawyers, etc. ) that WORKING to earn $ 200K is qualitatively different from having enough RETURN ON CAPITAL to earn $ 200K.
You show me a family that has that kind of assets and any decent accountant can deploy those assets so as to minimize taxes. However, if you work and earn the money, you better get ready to pay the tax man.
That's one reason why jfk's proposal to tax people earning over $ 200K is so asinine - it won't apply to him or that nut he's married to.
On a Friday afternoon!
I suggest you go to ActivistCash.com and look up Tides Foundation, Ruckus Society and others to get the answer as to why we need to be worried about how much $$ Tah-ray-zah has.
Excellent reply, especially the last sentence. Kerry is pandering to the lower income voters who maybe clear 25k a year. They think earning 200k+ makes you rich. Of course we know it's asinine, but poor people might not.
I disagree. It is perfectly legitimate to point out the hypocrisy of behaviors, even if they are legal. Raising taxes on people who work for $200,000, while doing everything to avoid paying taxes yourself on a much higher income, is hypocritical. Arranging your finances to avoid paying Medicare taxes, as Edwards did, is hypocritical. They can choose to use every legal loophole they want to avoid taxes, but when they then talk about others not paying their fair share, they are hypocrites.
at 4% interest, they would be earning $40 million a year.
For example, I know a couple of wealthy people. They are doctors, and they own a farm. They live in the farmhouse and theoreticly are farmers, but in a very limited way (they had a calf for a while, and they grow hay on one of the fields). But they get all the tax writeoffs associated with being farmers and business owners, while living nicely in their "place of business".
One business owner I know has gotten around estate taxes by buying some unimproved land in his grandkids name, then building his company's offices on the land (leased to the company on a 99-year lease). At whatever point he sells the business, the most likely part of the deal is the new owners buy the land the business sits on as part of the deal, with most of the value of the business passing to the grandkids via the real estate. Other examples abound.
The people with earned incomes in the $200K to $1M / year are the main targets of the wealthy "tax the rich" faction in the Democrat Party. Once you get in that range, you start being able to compete with the wealthy for investment opportunities, and they don't like the competition (for the purpose of this discussion I'm defining "wealthy" as somebody who gets at least $200K/year in investment income, excluding all forms of earned income).
The very wealthy are also big fans of big city deficits, since it raises the interest rate paid on Municipal bonds (which are exempt from federal income taxes)
The biggest way to avoid taxes is to own your own business and be able to write off things as business expenses
"They think earning 200k+ makes you rich. Of course we know it's asinine, but poor people might not."
Rich is relative, 200K certainly won't buy yachts and jets but it allows a lifestyle that is, in some ways, rich beyond the means of the most wealthy of a few generations ago. At the same time certain things which were easily available a hundred years ago are almost unattainable to anyone of today. I don't have time or space to elaborate but a little reflection will show you what I mean.
Adjusting for inflation, can you imagine how much 200k could have bought several generations ago?
Of course this is kind of off topic, but back then people could afford to buy a modest home and raise children on one paycheck. These days, every time you turn around, you have to cough up money for some damn government scheme. I think what we've lost is personal freedom and peace of mind.
Kerry's attitude (and Kennedy, etc)is "I've got mine, the hell with you".
Btw, I qualify for food stamps at the moment. I do understand that when the government penalizes people who earn over 200k, it cuts back opportunities for the rest of us to advance. The tax system is nuts, because the harder you work, the more they screw you. I want to be able to someday earn that kind of money, but I know that most of it will be eaten up in taxes thanks to the Democrats.
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