A tax system that's letting almost half of U.S. households pay no 2009 federal income taxes at all lacks fairness and simplicity and disengages too many Americans from matters of critical public importance.Here's what the TPC actually says:
The Washington-based Tax Policy Center says about 47 percent of households owe no such taxes because their incomes were too low for them to owe anything, or credits, deductions and exemptions eliminated their liability. Meanwhile, households with earnings in the top 10 percent will pay about 73 percent of federal income taxes
About 45 percent of households will owe no federal income tax in 2010, according to our estimates. Half of them earn too little, while the other half -- mostly middle- and lower-income households -- will take advantage of tax credits such as the earned income credit, the child and child-care credits, the American Opportunity and Lifetime Learning credits, which help pay for college, and the saver's credit, which subsidizes retirement saving.Is the Trib editorial board actually looking to raise taxes on the working poor?
But even citizens who pay no income tax still pay other kinds of taxes. They pay Social Security and Medicare taxes when they work, sales taxes when they buy things and property taxes on their homes. Drivers pay gasoline taxes, and smokers and drinkers pay excise taxes on tobacco and alcohol. According to our research, more than 75 percent of us will pay at least some form of federal tax in 2010.
Those who pay no federal taxes are mostly the low-income elderly or very poor families with children. Even about half of those with annual incomes under $10,000 pay some federal tax, most often payroll taxes on wages.
By the way the same Tax Policy Center says that it's a myth that Americans are over taxed.
Let's see the Trib push that one.
Is the Trib editorial board actually looking to raise taxes on the working poor?
ReplyDeleteRemember the Wall Street Journal's "lucky duckies"?
Class warfare, pure and simple.
A Spork in the Drawer
I would certainly invite Richard Scaife (or, individually, the members of the WSJ editorial board) to place all his assets in trust, and after purchasing maybe five or six changes of clothes, including one or maybe two Burlington Coat Factory suits, to take a salary of 12,000 (with no benefits), rent an apartment and see how he likes it.
ReplyDeleteTo be accurate and fair, he should also take care of (feed, cloth and help with homework) perhaps three children. If he were to do so, he might see a tax refund of five thousand or more, resulting in a total income of maybe 17,000 dollars. He would see exactly how the poor are gaming the system and living off the hard work of the rest of us.