Nearly half of US households escape fed income tax

Another good reason to go straight to a national Fair Tax. Eliminate all this nonsense and have nothign but a national sales tax.

The current system is so screwed up that we are killing ourselves.

And for the record I got about $5000 from Uncle Sam this year. Actually went down this year. Not ashamed to admit it. Government is putting money out there for the taking so I'm taking it.

And I don't want to hear any of you "internet libertarians" flapping your gums over it because you take those deductions too or otherwise you like paying even more money to the government then they already take out of your check.

Those people who think that are not completely stupid - the social security and medicare taxes are basically federal income taxes under other names (though social sec caps out). There is no promise the money we pay into soc sec will be there for us, and medicare is a tax just like a rose is a rose. So it's like a 8% surtax as a penalty for earning money.

But I'm with you that cost of health care and personal retirement accts is payment for a benefit, not a tax.

I'd love a consumption tax instead of income tax, it makes a lot of sense to punishing spending, and not earning, money. But there's at least three major problems with it -

1- they won't repeal 16th amendment (income tax won't be abolished) so we will end up paying both;
2- they promise it will be just a small amount, i.e. 5%, but end up like Britain (17.5% VAT) or France (19.5%) or Denmark (20%), and then
3- it hits the poorer people disproportionately, so (although they get hard ons about the idea of a tax) it's tough to get populists, Democrats, and liberals behind something that will cost lower-income class maybe 30% of paycheck while the impact on rich people would be below maybe 1% of their income.

In fact, you gave Sammy-boy an interest-free loan of $5,000 for most of a year. Free advice (so it's worth what you paid for it ), unless you like the forced-savings aspect, bump up your exemption by 1 or two and deny US taxman this freebie you give him.



The bottom line is, you are right, Zombie, I have prepared tax returns the past few years and have found the bar falling lower and lower for those who must pay federal income tax.

Why do right-wingnuts always forget about payroll taxes whenever they want to bitch about the poor? And state taxes, including property taxes and sales taxes?

Whose forgetting you stupid cocksucker?

It says it right in the article.

I was only talking about those. The rest of the stuff is a income tax.

They are not required to collect a income tax. It says they have the power to lay and collect not that they must exercise it.

However I do agree repealing it would be for the best.

To replace our current funding of the government without the government losing or gaining tax money it needs to be at about 23%.

I find this puzzling. I'm no accountant but I am in a family of four with two kids under 18 and if those deductions are the only ones you assume (and not child care credit or mortgages or whatever else...) then I don't think you can get to $50k before you pay. I think it's something more like $33k-ish

Punishing spending just assures that people do less of it. As consumer buying is the majority of the engine that drives the economy, sane people understand why this is stupid.

Cutting taxes always brings in more revenue.

Really? So cutting them to 0.0005% would bring in more revenue?

Obivously you stupid nit wit if you cut them too far you won't bring in as much buyt cutting taxes does bring in more revenue.

Everytime taxes have been cut tax revenue has gone up. There is not one instance of cutting taxes and tax revenue decreasing in return.

That's a matter of some controversy, actually.

So, how far is "too far" in your view?

You cut taxes to encourage growth but you have to do it carefully. When (when!) growth occurs, revenues go up and you can cut taxes again. Lather, rinse, repeat. It requires long-term vision and discipline which, unfortunately, we can't seem to maintain.

This isn't even a new concept. Doc Smith recognized it in his Lensman series wayyy back. JFK, Reagan, Bush II, and accompanying legislatures. The trouble with our politicians was that they typically forgot what worked.

0.0005%

Not 0.005% though? That would be okay and would raise revenues?

Reaganomics worked?

Taxing the "wealthy" never works because, by definition, there are only a few truly wealthy people. The real answer is growth and making sure that growth happens for the most people.

According to Forbes, there are about 400 billionaires worth about $1 trillion. Taxing at 100% only gets you $1 trillion. Meanwhile, according to ThinkProgress, there are about 8 million households with assets (excluding primary residences) above $1 million. That's at least $8 trillion and probably a lot more. To boot, we're talking less than 3% of the population.

My point is that growth is the answer. NOT higher taxes. Obama and practically every other politician gets the cart before the horse and wants to tax us into prosperity.

Churchill said, "We contend that for a nation to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle."

Yes. Worked for JFK when he tried it as well.

We're talking about taxes here. We're not talking about your IQ which is .0005 . I can see how you would get mixed up. I'm sure your socialized medicine provides homes for the extreme retards like you.

Ideology aside, I don't have a problem keeping the tax burden on the wealthy. It's practical, if not fair enough.

I agree. This will not only ensure people stop worshiping consumerism, but also stop the incredibly moronic stance of defending the rich from paying taxes.

You want to buy anything and everything as if you have unlimited funds? fine. but pay taxes on it.

Can't afford to that excellent 52 inch LCD tv and the taxes, too!? aww..., too bad.

Why do you bring up payroll tax, state tax and sales tax in threads about Federal Income Tax? It's not even an argument. It is information, that while technically true, brings nothing of meaning to the discussion.

So do away with sales tax, then?

Gotta love the blatant, childish class envy evident in here. Consumerism is to be discouraged, even though it isn't your money being spent. Wealthy people should pay more taxes because it makes life easier for the rest of us.


Grow the goddamned hell up, quit worrying about who has "more" than you, and take some fucking responsibility for yourselves!

I have only one child and our family income is less than 50,000 a year yet I owe the IRS more than a thousand dollars next week.

And that is with a professional tax preparer.

You would be peasant who thinks the nobility deserve what they have because God gave it to them.

I might be a peasant, but there isn't enough stretching room in Imaginationland for anyone to conceive of the circumstances where I would accept that "god" awarded anyone their wealth. I don't need fictional deities to establish to my satisfaction whether it was acquired through consentual means.

Well, we know God didn't grant the nobility their power. William of Normandy gave it to his "leutentants".

Now they've got the land and everyone has to give some/half/most of their crops to the nobility.

Same thing is happening now, but, instead of using "peasants" and "nobility" and "God-granted", we say "hey, they had the money to start a business and now we do all this work for them to reap the profits because ... you know, they started the business"

Either way, it involves one person reaping the benefits of many.

Poor Jenee. Jealous because some Korean immigrant came to the country with the clothes on his back, borrowed money to start a convenience store an worked 20 hour days all his life so he could send his kids to college. Damn him! We need to tax the shit out of him in the name of fairness for those of us who weren't so fortunate!

I really don't think I'm gonna bother this time.

Yes. that's exactly what I'm talking about.

I can't believe that this actually shocked me. It is obvious you have no idea how much time, work, money and risk goes into starting a business.