Bush: Making the Rich richer

[AJ]

http://money.cnn.com/2006/04/05/news/tax_cuts/index.htm?cnn=yes

Interesting read.


On a kinda side note, this makes me also wonder why people like Oprah and other VERY weathly are done paying taxes on the first day of the year due to paying a set limit.. What's with this bullshit as well? Is it true that people can only pay so much in taxes?

[Jana]

It's not that they can only pay so much, it's that only so much of your income is taxable. Their are limits on you taxable income. So yes, once you hit those limits, you are done.

[LaunchHard]

That's absolute bull shit. There is no reason why anyone earning more than $10 million needs any sort of tax break. We study this kind of stuff in my econ class at school. Someone who has that type of cash flow has no need to for a tax brek, nor will they be too thrilled. Whats 500,000 when your annual income is 10,000,000.

I would just like to add that this year, we are supposed to set a new world record for national deficit breaking last years record of 400+ billion and actually breaking into the 500+ billion category.

Our President is an Idiot!!!

[rst95eclipse]

And I thought that he was going to pay for his own war............

[CDeutsch]

On the other hand a lot of those guys pay more taxes a year then some people will pay in their life. Is that "fair"? What is the definition of "fair" when it comes to taxes?

It would be insteresting to see all the numbers on the tax break. Like how much they are already paying. How much this actually costs the US, etc. The article seemed pretty slanted.

I'm guessing this is a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of money that's pissed away on stupid crap (like banning gay mariage, etc). :rolleyes:

I do agree though that "Our President is an Idiot!!!". I may not have agreed in the past but it's quite obvious that at best he's not doing much good, and at worst he's doing an awful lot of bad.

[AJ]

We need to get away from these political dipshits and get someone in the office that knows numbers. I'd take the Enron accounting department at this point.

[ABV]

On the other hand a lot of those guys pay more taxes a year then some people will pay in their life. Is that "fair"? What is the definition of "fair" when it comes to taxes?


I read something a while ago with a figure on that. I think it was something like the top 5% pay 90% of the taxes. I can't remember the actual numbers, but I know it was pretty lopsided. I'll see if I can find it.

[AJ]

I don't see why it's so unfair though. Considering you could probably take what the top 5 people earn on this site for one whole year and not even come close to what Oprah makes in an hour. Let her pay more of the taxes, she's making more of the money.

This is probably why I think a flat tax is a good idea though.

[ABV]

Based on the 2003 IRS tax data, the same year referenced in the article in the first post:

The top 1 percent of taxpayers, ranked by adjusted gross income, paid 34.3 percent of all federal income taxes.
The top 5 percent of taxpayers paid 54.4 percent
The top 10 percent of taxpayers paid 65.8 percent
The top 25 percent of taxpayers paid 83.9 percent.

http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250.html

[LaunchHard]

On the other hand a lot of those guys pay more taxes a year then some people will pay in their life. Is that "fair"? What is the definition of "fair" when it comes to taxes?

This is the question of the ages. How do you determine who should pay what percentage, who should get a break, who should pay more, who should pay less? These are the questions that everyone asks. In my econ class we discussed what would be an equal hitfor different tax groups. Is 18% of $20,000 as eqaully painfull 30% of a $100,000, or whatever the differnet tax brackets are. I'm not talking literal numbers, but does that hit hurt the person earning $100,000 as much as the person earning $20,000. It's a rhetorical question, but it's damn near impossible to determine what an equal hit is to the rich and the poor.

And even though these people pay more annually than others ever pay, do they actually need a tax break, are taxes breaking these peopes' backs, i honestly do not thinks so...