Let's have a little tax chat, shall we? Take a look at this report showing how the income tax burden is distributed in our country. The "graduated" tax was instituted to be "fair"; that is, so that higher income earners would pay a higher percentage of their income to the government. I'd be surprised if most folks in our country really knew how those taxes were distributed.
A few simple truths: the top 1% earners in our country pay a dollar value in taxes greater than that contributed by the bottom 90%. The top 10% of wage earners...defined in 2007 as those making over $103,912 paid 70.3% of the total tax bill in this country. The bottom 50% of wage earners in the United States paid--get this--3.07% of the nation's income tax bill.
Now I know, income taxes are not the only taxes people pay. Payroll (Social Security, etc) taxes make up a sizable portion of monies deducted from our checks each month, and these taxes are levied equally on income (up to a certain level).
But the next time you hear a politician talking about the rich paying their fair share...think about two questions: What do they consider rich, and how much more is fair?
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
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2 comments:
When politicians talk about a tax cut for the poor I have to laugh. Indeed, I think the next Republican effort should be to cut the poor tax burden to 0% to shut the Democrats up. Except the Dems would then try to get the poor paying 0% some type of refund. It never ends.
But we are already there...the "stimulus" package paid out to those who filed federal income tax forms, whether they had any income tax liability or not. Millions of taxpayers in this country in fact did receive "rebates" on taxes they never paid.
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