Only Little People Pay Taxes Why a janitor ends up with a higher tax rate than a millionaire, and seven more charts that show how the richest Americans beat the IRS.
"We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes," billionaire hotelier Leona Helmsley famously (and allegedly) sniffed. She wasn't entirely correct: The super-rich do still pay taxes. The wealthiest 1 percent of taxpayers pay 32 percent of all income tax collected by the federal government.
But the super-rich don't pay as much as they used to—and thanks to a combination of tax cuts and preferential tax policies, their tax obligations can be less demanding than the so-called little people's. In fact, the very wealthiest Americans' tax burden has been steadily dropping for years, even as they've enjoyed astounding income growth not seen by the vast majority of Americans.
Sources: Tax Policy Center; Senate Joint Committee on Taxation; Tax.com
Right... and Obama didn't pay anything either? Gee, I wondered how long it would take the our resident socialist to try to post this one to see if it would stick on the wall...
The Obamas paid $1,792,414 in federal income tax on an adjusted gross income of $5,505,409. The President and First Lady also reported donating $329,100 to 40 different charities. The largest reported gifts to charity were $50,000 contributions to CARE and the United Negro College Fund. In addition, the President donated his $1.4 million Nobel Prize funds to 10 charities. The President and First Lady also released their Illinois income tax return and reported paying $163,303 in state income taxes.
Since being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1998, she has been an active Board Member of the New England Chapter of the MS Society. She has been a leading fundraiser for advocacy and research for MS.
Governor’s Liaison to the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
United Way of Massachusetts Bay supporter
Initiator, Co-Chair and Member of the Faith and Action Committee serving at-risk youth
United Way Board Member
United Way Executive Committee
United Way Community Impact Committee
Involved with the international program Right to Play
Volunteers time and leadership to equine therapy programs to physically disadvantaged children
Volunteers for the annual Scholastic Reading event
Volunteers for Partners for Youth with Disabilities
Volunteers for the American Red Cross
Volunteers for the Perkins School for the Blind
Was a Board Member for the Massachusetts Children’s Trust Fund
Received the 2006 Lifetime Achievement Award from Operation Kids
Director of Best Friends addressing needs of inner-city girls
Volunteer instructor at Mother Caroline Academy
Board Member of Families First
Served on the Women’s Cancer Advisory Board of Massachusetts General Hospital
Michelle helps us make bag lunches.
Jan. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney donated $7 million to charity in the past two years, more than the $6.2 million the candidate and his wife paid in federal taxes in that period, documents the campaign released show.
Romney and his wife, Ann, who jointly file taxes, gave $1.5 million cash in 2010 and $2.6 million cash in 2011 to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the tax documents show. A former Massachusetts governor whose campaign estimates his fortune at between $190 million and $250 million as co-founder of Boston private-equity firm Bain Capital LLC, Romney is a devout Mormon with deep family ties to the church.
How did Pelosi Reid & Obama permit this to happen? Bad enough when Reppublicans support this but when these Dem sign on too. Fire these "D's" who are all talk and no walk. BTW all the dem leaders are in those high tax brackets. Maybe they don't want to see change.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
Yes, lots of graphs in that article, but it's totally biased.
Why don't they have a graph of effective tax rates? That's what people actually end up paying after tax deductions, credits, exemptions, etc. But no, they just show a graph of tax brackets which doesn't represent what people actually end up paying. And to further mislead, they lump payroll taxes with income taxes. They are two different animals. They also complain that tax rates for the rich have gone down without mentioning tax rates from the middle class and low income have also gone down. Heck, the lower income people get money from the federal government without even owing any income tax in the form of the earned income tax credit (plus child tax credits). Why no mention of that?
The fact is, even adding in payroll taxes, the top 1% on average pay an effective tax rate of about 30%. The effective tax rate for the middle 20% of tax payers runs about 14%. It's really pretty simple unless you want to pick and choose winners and losers.
Its just so damn easy for the government to screw the middle class when half of the middle class citizens not only approve of being screwed but are begging their representatives to increase the disparity between them and the wealthy 1%. A version of Stockholm syndrome perhaps?
archer wrote: Its just so damn easy for the government to screw the middle class when half of the middle class citizens not only approve of being screwed but are begging their representatives to increase the disparity between them and the wealthy 1%. A version of Stockholm syndrome perhaps?
Perhaps these people are just smart enough to realize how jobs are created in the first place...and it's not government doing the creating.
The left is angry because they are now being judged by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin.
archer wrote: Its just so damn easy for the government to screw the middle class when half of the middle class citizens not only approve of being screwed but are begging their representatives to increase the disparity between them and the wealthy 1%. A version of Stockholm syndrome perhaps?
Perhaps these people are just smart enough to realize how jobs are created in the first place...and it's not government doing the creating.
Yep...you are one of those who has bought the lie...thanks for being an excellent example of my post.
