Dollar Devaluation

Rich is a relative term ussually referring to any person that has more money than yourself.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Exactly so. So to express "sour grapes" about rich people, a non-rich person would say that he wouldn't want to be rich, anyway. I didn't see anybody here doing that. The general complaint I saw being made is that rich people pay less than their fair share of taxes, because of their superior abilities to manipulate the system.

I believe if you think about it more, you'll know exactly what I meant.

justafarmer - I dunno. The functional definition of "rich" I grew up with is a person who can live well without needing to work. What the English quaintly refer to as "having a private income", and what the more earthy Americans called "clipping coupons [off bonds] for a living".

 

Same here.

The whole "game" is a balancing act between avoiding class warfare, not penalizing success, protecting private property rights, eliminating poverty, and preventing the long term concentration of wealth to the point where we just recreate feudalism. The bad news is that it appears we are going to fail.

 

+1

 

Self emplyed create most of the new job in this country, and are some of the most audited. There are plenty of revenue checking devices in place, so most of them would not risk underreporting income.

Rich people employ tax professionals since they are the target of the highest income tax rates, special taxes (AMT, "luxury taxes" etc). If I were in their shoes I would pay for the best advice as well. Like you said, tax avoidance is legal, it is following the laws as passed.

"Advantage" of the "fiction" that a corporation is a person, huh? Ok, if a corporation is not a person, they are not taxable. So you just wiped out over a third of US income tax collections.

You say "fair" is paying whatever the government tells you to pay? So if Congress passed a "Texas John" tax rate of 90% that is fair because its the law? Please do not drink the "tax the rich" Koolaid going around, because pretty dang soon YOU will be "rich". Remember in 1914 Congress PROMISED that only the "rich" would EVER be subject to the new income tax. Our nation had survived 138 years without any form of income tax.

I really am with you John in hating tax cheats. I would never go so far though as saying whatever law Congress passes is "fair", or to think taxing other people will make our country or myself better off.

 

Semi-retired at fifty-one, I pretty much fit the definition I mentioned above. I have my accountant, and my attorney, and so on.

Although I'm no Warren Buffet, I agree with him that taxes on the rich should be raised. The goal of tax laws should be to ease the burden on those who have but little, and put in on the broad shoulders of those who have much.

I don't say this out of weepy sentimentality, nor out of guilt for what I have (all of which I earned the old-fashioned way: by working my butt off). In an economy that's 70% consumer spending - everyday people buying everyday things as they live their everyday lives - cutting taxes on the least of us benefits all of us.

 

I don't agree at all....those that make 250K plus a year pay their share and more. There is no reason I can think of where that group should be required to subsidize everyone less fortunate. If those that are considered 'wealthy' in America would LIKE to pay more, by all means, I'm more then sure our illustrious gov't will take your money - and I'm also more then sure they'll get it to the right people....when pigs fly.
If you don't trust the gov't to redistribute accordingly, then just donate...it's tax free!

BTW, I'm nowhere near the $250K+ catagory...my income is <$20K/yr....so my post is hardly biased.
Check where states in the US are losing residents at a record pace, starting with NY, and see why...it's not because of the weather!

 

But since the "least of us" pay no taxes already, it's tough to cut them. I've read articles claiming that as many as 48% of US households pay little or no income tax. One has to pay taxes before they can benefit from a tax cut.

 

Those who are rich always have the option of using the standard deduction instead of itemizing, not taking any tax credits they are entitled to and a multiple of other tricks to voluntarily raise their tax burden.

 

Nonsense. A working person pays an effective 15.3% of his gross income in Social Security and Medicare taxes. Anybody who spends a dollar indirectly pays a variety of taxes.

 

It isn't nonsense at all. I was referring to income taxes collected by the IRS, not the other payroll taxes. Of course they can be cut as long as society is okay without the SSI or Medicare programs that they fund. And your 15% includes the employer portion of the tax. It's a major stretch to treat that as part of individual income. You could cut the employer tax to zero and the employee will not see a dime of the employer contribution in their paycheck.

 

Man, this is way over the top. I spent a lot of time in uniform carrying and using weapons in service of this country, including warped people who do not respect the people's choice of the person holding the office of President. Our Constitution guarantees you the right to your opinion, no matter how un-American it may be. I realize this forum is no place for a political agenda, but no way can I let your comment go by without a response. We fought too hard and too long for that.

All gave some. Some gave all.

 

I think what irks people is NOT so much the taxes collected directly from income.
As was posted, many folks don't even pay income tax, and many even get wealth redistribution in the name of EIC.
The problem is all the hidden taxes, taxes on taxes, fees that are taxes by another name, etc, so on...
Even the fact that when a new dollar is born, only the first user gets a full dollar's worth of value from said dollar.
Everyone thereafter that accepts that dollar accepts it at a lower value than the previous holder due to the FIAT situation.
Inflation is the most insidious and evil tax there is.

All this tax on tax, huge amounts of percieved waste and graft, wealth redistribution, and the fact that once a tax is created, even temporary taxes, they NEVER go away.

Did you know that there was a temporary tax put on your phone bill in 1896, to pay for the Spanish-American War?
Only the extremely rich had phones, and it was supposed to go away in short order... IT IS STILL ON YOUR BILL!
It is listed on your bill as a misc Federal tax.
This is the sort of thing that breeds contempt for government and taxes.

 

This is hilarious.
Why am i not surprised?
​

 

During the Civil War Congress passed the Revenue Act of 1861 which included a tax on personal incomes to help pay war expenses. The tax was repealed ten years later. However, in 1894 Congress enacted a flat rate Federal income tax, which was ruled unconstitutional the following year by the U.S. Supreme Court because it was a direct tax not apportioned according to the population of each state. The 16th amendment, ratified in 1913, removed this objection by allowing the Federal government to tax the income of individuals without regard to the population of each State

 

I don't have a problem with outright taxation.

It's when they are sneaky and duplicitous that burns my crotch...

 

Taxes on taxes. One person in Congress had the stupidity to say " After your dead why should you care what happens" Anthony Weiner on estate taxes . It is difficult to put together a family fortune and better educate and help your family.
Like the snow flake piling up in to a mass that rolls down the mountain to create an avalanche. their eyes will open.

 

our governement will tax thee ...
let me count the ways ...

federal income tax
state income tax
local income tax

social security tax
medicare tax

property tax

sales tax

gasoline taxes

numerous taxes on our utility bills (electric, phone, gas, cable)

estate taxes when you die

taxes on corporations that are passed on to consumers with higher prices

did i leave anything out?

 

--Taxes on alcohol and cigarettes,
--taxes on transportation and infrastructure, in the form of tolls
--taxes on small business in the form of liscenses, fees etc

and the list goes on and on.

 

Spoken like somebody who's never run a business. When an employer decides a job is worth net, say, $15 an hour, he'll then adjust the offer he makes to the prospective employee by the amount he'll have to pay in payroll taxes, and actually offer $13.85.

You've fallen for the false narrative commonly used by "fair tax" hucksters and the like, in which all taxes but federal income tax are ignored, in order to promote the idea that rich people are groaning under a huge tax burden, while tens of millions of parasites get off scot free.

Others who responded have filled in the rest of the story, so I think you should be able to understand the facts now. Unless, of course, you're one of those people who don't let facts unsettle their prejudices.

There's a lot of it about.