Posted on 04/07/2010 4:13:00 PM PDT by quesney
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Tax Day is a dreaded deadline for millions, but for nearly half of U.S. households it's simply somebody else's problem.
About 47 percent will pay no federal income taxes at all for 2009. Either their incomes were too low, or they qualified for enough credits, deductions and exemptions to eliminate their liability. That's according to projections by the Tax Policy Center, a Washington research organization.
[...]
In recent years, credits for low- and middle-income families have grown so much that a family of four making as much as $50,000 will owe no federal income tax for 2009, as long as there are two children younger than 17, according to a separate analysis by the consulting firm Deloitte Tax.
[...]
The result is a tax system that exempts almost half the country from paying for programs that benefit everyone, including national defense, public safety, infrastructure and education. It is a system in which the top 10 percent of earners -- households making an average of $366,400 in 2006 -- paid about 73 percent of the income taxes collected by the federal government.
The bottom 40 percent, on average, make a profit from the federal income tax, meaning they get more money in tax credits than they would otherwise owe in taxes. For those people, the government sends them a payment.
"We have 50 percent of people who are getting something for nothing," said Curtis Dubay, senior tax policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
To get tax cuts passed for the middle class and above, we continuous cut people from tax rolls. This is how we got around the class warfare charges. The net result was to help the left. We electioneer, they look at generations.
40%?
Wifey and I used to despise such an "underground economy".....but we both now agree that if we were still working, we'd damn well both be bartering the shit out of our talents. Screw 'em.
Thanks.
I'm sure many other hard-working Americans are in the same boat. If it wasn't for the wife and kids, I'd sell what I have and buy a cabin in the woods where I can spend the rest of my life fishing and watching the clouds roll across the sky.
Me and wife paid over 60000 I know we make good money but why do we get penalized for being productive? Bastards all of em.
Would not be a problem if the taxpayers just declined to pay. Even a semi-successful tax revolt, say one-fifth of all taxpayers don’t pay up, and game is over, lights out.
The Bush tax cuts reduced the tax liability for about 12% more income earners. Once those expire, there will be many who have been getting a free ride who will suddenly be paying taxes like the other half of us.
What we need is for them to abolish the income tax and implement a usage (fair) tax. I paid in 56,000 in taxes last year, and I live in a double wide on acre lot in nowhere Texas. I make good money but with all that I pay to the govt and to insurance, I have little to nothing left.
This is intentionally misleading. It makes it seem that an income of $366,400 is needed to be in the top 10% of earners. Since they are using the "average" which includes a few incomes of one billion dollars, the threshold for being in the top 10% is much less than $366,000.
Sam, this is the philosophical issue with taxes. If I could keep even one half of what I pay in federal income taxes and give only one half of that away, I could do more with that one fourth than the federal government will ever do with the entire amount.
Government has unjustly usurped the role of charity in this country. It's bad for a number of reasons.
Government is inefficient at it and becomes bureaucratized and impersonal in dealing with those in need.
Even more so, however, the older I get the more I realize that this is an evil. That is, this is an assault against the dignity of the individual who wants to be charitable in accordance with the two great commandments.
That aspect is immoral.
Is this the left's definition of "profit"? Do they want people to think that a profit is a gift from the federal government? Actually, this is money taken under threat of jail from someone who earned it.
Correct, I paid 37.8% of my income in taxes last year and 23% on insurance. This does not count all the property taxes etc. A usage tax is the only way for all to pay taxes equally according to their lifestyle. A Fair Tax with no exemptions, no refunds, no income qualifiers.
Not really - he'll just turn the recession into a depression. Taxpayers will do what they need to avoid having to pay taxes. They're starting to do so already.
It takes a lot of guts to go Galt.
In order to starve the beast one must remove any and all capital from the economy.
Going Galt means viscerally living below your own productive capacity to the extent that you don’t owe taxes.
Most people who are the productive nature, simply can’t do it.
Could get ugly? Last night I was in Walmart, could only pick up a few things since now that my husband is barely working we are on a tight budget.....the Walmart closest to my house is mostly immigrants, more from Africa and Muslim countries..this I know for a fact because they wear anything from full Burkhas to the head scarfs, Mexicans are gaining in population as well.
I about had an stroke while on line last night....the amount of these immigrants paying with food stamps was staggering!!! The Mexicans usually just have tons of WIC coupons! Here I am trying to keep my bill less than $30.00 and they have carts full of food!!
Things have gotten so bad for us and many I know and when things get really stressful I think, “I am strong, my grandparents survived this, so will I” but yesterday I thought, when my grandparents went through the depression, there was not an entire segment of society getting things for FREE, while they were struggling! How dare these people come to a country with NO way of supporting themselves!!!! It is probably my mindset but I feel deep down, that I would never even move to another state, never mind country if I could not pay my way!
Every year I OWE taxes, how much more can they take? They take, and take and I am feeding others while I am struggling to feed myself and my family and pay my bills!!! Now they will take from me more to provide HC for those who cannot even provide themselves with food!!!
The IRS says they will not “really” go after anyone, they will just deduct from their “Tax Refund” Hello??? for those of us that pay will they tag it on to what we already owe???
They are playing with fire big time....this in not a depression in the historical sense......not when those that are working are struggling MORE than those that do not work!!!!
Sorry for the rant, I am still pissed about last night!!!
Going full Galt is a difficult task for those of us that are employees because we simply can't cut our hours down to that level without being fired.
But, one can certainly go "partially Galt" by reducing their spending to a minimum and otherwise acting to keep their earnings out of the hands of the useless thieves in Government. If you're self-employed or have some control over your earning hours, you can certainly channel your productive time and effort toward non-financial activities like home improvement or bartering your labor with like-minded neighbors and friends.
It doesn't need to be a matter of cutting hours, sometimes it means changing jobs to lower your exposure...ie/ take a wage cut. This tactic is difficult for a single person, let alone a family, in our modern world and times.
And this is about the same proportion that wants Bummercare. Coinkydink?
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