Posted on 08/01/2009 5:29:16 AM PDT by Turret Gunner A20
New data Released by the IRS has just shown that the top 1% income earners pays more in tax than the bottom 95% combined.
An analysis of IRS data by the Tax Foundation shows that the top 1 percent of taxpayers paid 40.4 percent of the total income taxes collected by the federal government, the highest percentage in modern history. While the bottom 95 percent paid 39.4 percent of the income tax burden.
The tax foundation rightly notes that putting this in perspective, the top 1 percent is comprised of just 1.4 million taxpayers and they pay a larger share of the income tax burden now than the bottom 134 million taxpayers combined.
Of course, this isn't even taking into account President Obama's plan to increase the top marginal tax rate to almost 60%.
bttt
Apparently that’s still not enough.
Tax the rich
Feed the poor
Til there are no
Rich no more.
The working wealthy (people who own businesses or people who are well paid to do what they do, are the wealth-generators of this nation. LEAVE THEM ALONE!
The government can’t create wealth - all it can do is print notes claiming to have value - and steal what wealth exists and give it to their friends.
When ever I hear these windbags in Congress rant on about the evil rich, I note they never talk about wealth, they talk about income yet lump in the high paid producers with those whom are actually wealthy. Looking around the Congress, I see a lot of individuals who may not be earning a lot of salary but are living off their wealth. Seems to me this is a charade, almost a magicians trick, to focus the spotlight on the producers while staying hidden behind the curtain. A good number of these individuals are your typical limousine liberals or RINOs who feel they can set their consciences at peace if they level the playing field; while keeping the rules of the game in their favor.
Vince
bookmark
They donated big time to Obama and they voted for him and they are the ones who control the lying media. If they decide to be taxed like that then that is only fair.
bookmark
1.4 million people need a place to escape to.
Vote with your feet and leave the socialist utopia to disintegrate.
My question is: How did the rich survive during Kennedy’s 70% tax in the top marginal rate?
And further more: How did the rich survive before Kennedy at the 90% top marginal rate?
I never could figure that out, I would think the country would collapse at high rates such as these.
I have always felt that the root cause of a lot of our problems is the fact that a great number of people do not contribute anything at all to support constitutional government services. In fact, not only do a growing number of people get a totally free ride, they benefit from the wealth redistribution inherent in the income tax system.
Giving low income earners a free ride may sound compassionate to some but it means that non-taxpayers have absolutely no investment in the country and no concern at all for waste, excessive government spending and government growth. To use Obama’s term, the have no “skin in the game.” In fact, they are taking skin from the game. They enjoy the benefits of constitutional and non-constitutional services without any contribution so they are happy to see government confiscate more and more from the producers and give it to the takers.
If everyone had to contribute, even in a small way, to support the police, fire department, military, infrastructure, etc. there would be a much different attitude to the excessive growth and greed of government.
This is one reason why a flat tax makes some sense - everyone who benefits from government services would be contributing to the cost of those services.
But as long as we are stuck with the income tax I believe there should be a minimum tax and everyone should have to pay something - even those on welfare, etc. Those with no income can work off their obligation cleaning roadways, waterways, parks and government buildings etc. (the disabled and elderly excluded). Then everyone would have “skin in the game.”
My family is nowhere near what would be considered high income so am not motivated in this view by being in a high income tax bracket.
Because 1.4 million people, no matter what their income, can not pay for everything the dims have obligated this country to pay for.
The fact that it has worked thus far makes no difference because the dims keep piling more on.
Eventually every single person, whether rich or poor old or young, will have to be taxed heavily. That will end the liberal agenda.
It will also reduce all to a subsistence level.
Too bad some of them don’t run advertisingtoa tell the American people the facts. It might not hurt for a small business pac to ask some fo the rich folks to do an nonpartisan ad campaign in the Enquirer,Guideposts, TV Guide and Reader Digest so that the folks at the bottom half of the tax structure can see the facts.
Good questions.
They survived by using legal (or illegal) tax avoidance schemes. Many studies, private and government, show that as the top tax rates shoot upwards the people affected take defensive action so that few, if any, actually pay the higest rates.
The same government that imposes high tax rates like those you mention also builds in legal loopholes and offsets so the wealthy can legally protect their income. Tax free municipal bonds are one of the most obvious and simplest forms.
People with that kind of income can afford the best investment and legal advice available to protect their income from confiscatory government policies and that is exactly what they do.
The real danger of these high tax rates is that If people cannot protect their income here they take their resources and investments to other places and stop investing in our economy.
My question is: How did the rich survive during Kennedy’s 70% tax in the top marginal rate?
If the Government really cares about revenue, they would tax the middle class too. That will (eventually) come. But first they want to enact all these new programs and will sell it to the majority on the promise that only the “Rich” will pay. Yeah, sure. After the programs are law, they will announce that taxes need to increase for everybody. So, in the end, all those who think they’re getting something for nothing will get just what they deserve.
Rates are one thing. Percentage paid is another. Back then there were lots of ways to avoid paying the high rates, so they didn’t.
“Al members of Congress and the President should be required to read and reflect on the story The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg. If a significant number of these high end taxpayers revolted and left the country due to high tax rates what would happen?”
It doesn’t matter what they read, or what arguments you make to them. They are are ideologues, and they are immune to what they do. I have little doubt that, If they could get away with it, there are those on the left who would be happy to ransack the homes and businesses of those they call ‘the rich’ and take everything from them. Don’t think that a ‘Cultural Revolution’ like the Chinese version couldn’t happen here. The left has been fanning the flames of class resentment and hatred for a long time.
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