Should The Rich Be Required To Pay Higher Taxes In the US?

[JakeStarkey]

The rich, supposedly, do pay more. In fact, we must make that so.

 

[eagle1462010]

The rich, supposedly, do pay more. In fact, we must make that so.

Supposedly.................lol..................go to the irs site and look at income versus amounts received by the irs and get that supposedly out of your head. They do, and it's in black and white at their site for all to see.........

Unless you just don't want to look there.

The counter to that equation of those who pay no taxes at all is that they forget to see the other side of the equation on other taxes.......property, sales taxes, licensing fees and taxes...........and etc............People of all incomes pay taxes in some way................just not so on the irs forms via the final payments to the Irs........

The only real exception being the tax credits which pay out over 200 Billion a year to the lower wage earners with children.

 

[Sonny Clark]

I think the rich should ABSOLUTELY pay more because the majority of them are selfish and don't care about anybody but themselves! Trust me, if you are a millionaire, it is NOT going to hurt you if you just pay a little more in taxes. I believe that if you are a good and righteous person, you would want to help the poor or people that are less fortunate. It's as simple as that! People need to stop being so selfish.

Everyone should pay the same percentage of their income for taxes. We should all be taxed the same. Why punish wealth? Why punish success? Why tax one citizen any more than another? If one person is taxed 15% of their income, then everyone should be taxed at a 15% rate. We're all citizens. We all share highways, bridges, national defense, schools, libraries, fire departments, law enforcement, and other public services.

 

[rdean]

If I pay 30%, they should pay 30%. Ben Carson made sense there.

 

[Wyatt earp]

I think the rich should ABSOLUTELY pay more because the majority of them are selfish and don't care about anybody but themselves! Trust me, if you are a millionaire, it is NOT going to hurt you if you just pay a little more in taxes. I believe that if you are a good and righteous person, you would want to help the poor or people that are less fortunate. It's as simple as that! People need to stop being so selfish.

Everyone should pay the same percentage of their income for taxes. We should all be taxed the same. Why punish wealth? Why punish success? Why tax one citizen any more than another? If one person is taxed 15% of their income, then everyone should be taxed at a 15% rate. We're all citizens. We all share highways, bridges, national defense, schools, libraries, fire departments, law enforcement, and other public services.

oh come on sonny, we all know the rich scams the system. It's like Obama and the Iran deal he is realising billions of dollars to Iran to further them to fund terrorist across the middle east.

 

[bripat9643]

Worked before

One thing we do know is that Supply Side Economics has been a failure

Everything you know is wrong.

 

[bripat9643]

Due to the enormous corruption and cronyism in our federal government, many wealthy use their expensive lawyers to get out of paying taxes. The current tax code is 70k pages...time for a change.

Let's go to a simple flat tax. That would eliminate the political class' efforts to enrich their donors/owners.

I would be behind a progressive consumption tax, that way everybody has a dog in the race. A flat tax doesn't work for a lot of people. For instance, I'm a landlord and I have tons of expenses I have to write-off. Without those write-offs, I would be forced to sell because the property wouldn't produce any profit. Either that or I would have to raise rents so high that people wouldn't be able to afford to live here.

Then you should support the FAIR tax. Look into it.

 

[Mac1958]

Graduated income tax rates with deductions and credits incentivize a wide variety of positive, tax-advantaged investment and economic activities that manifest on both national and local levels, and both for individuals and corporations. A flat tax would eliminate all of that positive activity.

Personally, I think we should poll "the rich" on this. I have many advisory clients who are worth seven figures and several worth eight figures. It has been my (admittedly anecdotal) observation that a vast majority of them are perfectly comfortable paying graduated rates, and that even adding a couple of new, higher margins would not cause them to become suicidal or damage the economy.

What some guy screams on the radio is one thing, real life is another.
.

 

[Wyatt earp]

If I pay 30%, they should pay 30%. Ben Carson made sense there.

Except your 30% is $3 bucks

And

A rich guys 30% is $300,000,000 dollars

 

[rightwinger]

I think the rich should ABSOLUTELY pay more because the majority of them are selfish and don't care about anybody but themselves! Trust me, if you are a millionaire, it is NOT going to hurt you if you just pay a little more in taxes. I believe that if you are a good and righteous person, you would want to help the poor or people that are less fortunate. It's as simple as that! People need to stop being so selfish.

Everyone should pay the same percentage of their income for taxes. We should all be taxed the same. Why punish wealth? Why punish success? Why tax one citizen any more than another? If one person is taxed 15% of their income, then everyone should be taxed at a 15% rate. We're all citizens. We all share highways, bridges, national defense, schools, libraries, fire departments, law enforcement, and other public services.

The wealthy benefit more from schools, roads, bridges, national defense, law enforcement and other public services than average Americans......they should pay more

 

[NYcarbineer]

Due to the enormous corruption and cronyism in our federal government, many wealthy use their expensive lawyers to get out of paying taxes. The current tax code is 70k pages...time for a change.

Let's go to a simple flat tax. That would eliminate the political class' efforts to enrich their donors/owners.

We could go to a simple progressive tax that would be fairer.

That would be?

Several rates instead of one, but all the complexity that the flat tax removes gets taken out as well.

We have several tax rates, I don't follow you.

You would have one rate under a flat tax.

You can simplify the tax system without eliminating the progressive tax brackets.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

I would be behind a progressive consumption tax, that way everybody has a dog in the race. A flat tax doesn't work for a lot of people. For instance, I'm a landlord and I have tons of expenses I have to write-off. Without those write-offs, I would be forced to sell because the property wouldn't produce any profit. Either that or I would have to raise rents so high that people wouldn't be able to afford to live here.

How would your receipts versus expenses change under a Flat Tax system?
You would still be able to account for costs versus revenues under a flat tax system. Unless you are using loop holes, which everyone does, to find ways of paying less tax.

How would this force you to raise rents?

Much of the rent collected goes towards bills. Yes, you write that money off because you used the rent money to pay those bills. A flat tax system (the way I've always understood it) would eliminate those write-offs. That means I would have to pay tax on all rental collections even though it merely passed through my hands to another entity. That could put me in a higher tax bracket as well when you add my income from work.

I don't see that as a problem under the Flat Tax. As you would still calculate the final profit the same way with net receipts and expenses anyway.

Well then it's not really a flat tax system then. Those deductions are still write-offs and have to be itemized for the IRS. In other words, nothing would change. A flat tax system is designed to eliminate those write-offs so everybody is on the same playing field. That's why I brought up the idea of a progressive consumption tax. There are a lot of people who don't pay any kind of tax at all. Many of them are in fields of work that are illegal or under the table. A consumption tax hits everybody whether you're a school teacher or a prostitute because we all need to buy things.

Not really..............business tax versus wage taxation is a different animal.
If you are running a business with x revenue versus y expenses to run the business it is still an x minus y equation to figure income.

Unless you are doing creative accounting under the current system to pay less in taxes on income.

Well then again, it's not really a flat tax system. The promoters of flat tax have businesses in mind. That's because politicians give breaks to financial supporters and some get many more breaks than others. Do you want a tax break for your industry? Then pay up.

So I can understand their concern, but I don't think there is a way to have a flat tax system that works for everybody, especially the politicians. That's why everybody talks about scrapping the tax system and starting a new one, but nobody ever does.

 

[bripat9643]

Graduated income tax rates with deductions and credits incentivize a wide variety of positive, tax-advantaged investment and economic activity that manifest on both national and local levels, and both for individuals and corporations. A flat tax would eliminate all of that positive activity.

Personally, I think we should poll "the rich" on this. I have many advisory clients who are worth seven figures and several worth eight figures. It has been my (admittedly anecdotal) observation that a vast majority of them are perfectly comfortable paying graduated rates, and that even adding a couple of new, higher margins would not cause them to become suicidal or damage the economy.

What some guy screams on the radio is one thing, real life is another.
.

The government shouldn't be deciding which investments are "positive" and which aren't. The government almost never makes good decisions. Whether the rich are willing to pay more is only one question. Some are and some aren't. The real issue is will society benefit by taking their income. It won't. The money taxed away would probably be invested in stocks or in their businesses. All taxing the rich does is reduce economic growth.

 

[Wyatt earp]

Due to the enormous corruption and cronyism in our federal government, many wealthy use their expensive lawyers to get out of paying taxes. The current tax code is 70k pages...time for a change.

Let's go to a simple flat tax. That would eliminate the political class' efforts to enrich their donors/owners.

We could go to a simple progressive tax that would be fairer.

That would be?

Several rates instead of one, but all the complexity that the flat tax removes gets taken out as well.

We have several tax rates, I don't follow you.

You would have one rate under a flat tax.

You can simplify the tax system without eliminating the progressive tax brackets.

so you want the same tax rate we have now an a added national sales tax? I am confused.

Listening to a neighbor and trying to follow this thread at the same time.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

I think the rich should ABSOLUTELY pay more because the majority of them are selfish and don't care about anybody but themselves! Trust me, if you are a millionaire, it is NOT going to hurt you if you just pay a little more in taxes. I believe that if you are a good and righteous person, you would want to help the poor or people that are less fortunate. It's as simple as that! People need to stop being so selfish.

Everyone should pay the same percentage of their income for taxes. We should all be taxed the same. Why punish wealth? Why punish success? Why tax one citizen any more than another? If one person is taxed 15% of their income, then everyone should be taxed at a 15% rate. We're all citizens. We all share highways, bridges, national defense, schools, libraries, fire departments, law enforcement, and other public services.

The wealthy benefit more from schools, roads, bridges, national defense, law enforcement and other public services than average Americans......they should pay more

Wait a minute: how are they benefiting more than anybody else? Even if they were, they are paying more than anybody else so it's already fair in that regard.

The wealthy don't need Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, SNAP's cards, Obama phones, school lunch programs just to name a few. If anybody benefits more, it's the poor because they put little to nothing into those programs and take all they can out.

 

[bripat9643]

Due to the enormous corruption and cronyism in our federal government, many wealthy use their expensive lawyers to get out of paying taxes. The current tax code is 70k pages...time for a change.

Let's go to a simple flat tax. That would eliminate the political class' efforts to enrich their donors/owners.

We could go to a simple progressive tax that would be fairer.

That would be?

Several rates instead of one, but all the complexity that the flat tax removes gets taken out as well.

We have several tax rates, I don't follow you.

You would have one rate under a flat tax.

You can simplify the tax system without eliminating the progressive tax brackets.

As long as you have an income tax, it's going to be complicated because the determination of "income" is never simple. The government will always have to make rules to determine what is legitimate income and what isn't. There will always be thousands of such rules.

 

[eagle1462010]

Graduated income tax rates with deductions and credits incentivize a wide variety of positive, tax-advantaged investment and economic activities that manifest on both national and local levels, and both for individuals and corporations. A flat tax would eliminate all of that positive activity.

Personally, I think we should poll "the rich" on this. I have many advisory clients who are worth seven figures and several worth eight figures. It has been my (admittedly anecdotal) observation that a vast majority of them are perfectly comfortable paying graduated rates, and that even adding a couple of new, higher margins would not cause them to become suicidal or damage the economy.

What some guy screams on the radio is one thing, real life is another.
.

More input........................explain...............

Are you saying the welfare checks of over 200 Billion a year should remain?
Are you referring to the tax write offs to Charities......................
Are you referring to them spending more money to write it off for tax purposes........

 

[charwin95]

I think the rich should ABSOLUTELY pay more because the majority of them are selfish and don't care about anybody but themselves! Trust me, if you are a millionaire, it is NOT going to hurt you if you just pay a little more in taxes. I believe that if you are a good and righteous person, you would want to help the poor or people that are less fortunate. It's as simple as that! People need to stop being so selfish.

Everyone should pay the same percentage of their income for taxes. We should all be taxed the same. Why punish wealth? Why punish success? Why tax one citizen any more than another? If one person is taxed 15% of their income, then everyone should be taxed at a 15% rate. We're all citizens. We all share highways, bridges, national defense, schools, libraries, fire departments, law enforcement, and other public services.

Amen...

 

[Mac1958]

Graduated income tax rates with deductions and credits incentivize a wide variety of positive, tax-advantaged investment and economic activity that manifest on both national and local levels, and both for individuals and corporations. A flat tax would eliminate all of that positive activity.

Personally, I think we should poll "the rich" on this. I have many advisory clients who are worth seven figures and several worth eight figures. It has been my (admittedly anecdotal) observation that a vast majority of them are perfectly comfortable paying graduated rates, and that even adding a couple of new, higher margins would not cause them to become suicidal or damage the economy.

What some guy screams on the radio is one thing, real life is another.
.

The government shouldn't be deciding which investments are "positive" and which aren't. The government almost never makes good decisions. Whether the rich are willing to pay more is only one question. Some are and some aren't. The real issue is will society benefit by taking their income. It won't. The money taxed away would probably be invested in stocks or in their businesses. All taxing the rich does is reduce economic growth.

I think the various tax deductions and credits work very well, and they absolutely do incentivize strategies that put more money in motion.

What benefits society is a subjective question. Does a society benefit overall when those who lack the capacity (for any of a wide range of reasons) are provided a higher foundation, even at the expense of a certain amount of economic dynamism? Yeah, I definitely think so.

There is obviously a tipping point there, and going too far in either direction is the problem.
.

 

[Sonny Clark]

I think the rich should ABSOLUTELY pay more because the majority of them are selfish and don't care about anybody but themselves! Trust me, if you are a millionaire, it is NOT going to hurt you if you just pay a little more in taxes. I believe that if you are a good and righteous person, you would want to help the poor or people that are less fortunate. It's as simple as that! People need to stop being so selfish.

Everyone should pay the same percentage of their income for taxes. We should all be taxed the same. Why punish wealth? Why punish success? Why tax one citizen any more than another? If one person is taxed 15% of their income, then everyone should be taxed at a 15% rate. We're all citizens. We all share highways, bridges, national defense, schools, libraries, fire departments, law enforcement, and other public services.

oh come on sonny, we all know the rich scams the system. It's like Obama and the Iran deal he is realising billions of dollars to Iran to further them to fund terrorist across the middle east.

That's exactly why no one should be taxed any differently. Look at the untold $Billion sent outside of this once great nation. Look at foreign aid, look at senseless deadly costly wars, no-bid government contracts such as Halliburton and GE, and all the waste, abuse, and fraud of our hard earned tax dollars. Why give the government any more than is necessary for public services, and to keep the government running for the benefit of all citizens? Taxes are a scam, a con, and the system is rigged. Yes, many make untold multi-$Billions from tax fraud, tax loopholes, tax shelters, hidden off-shore accounts, and other means and methods.

Why should anyone be forced to fund waste, fraud, and abuse? Why should anyone be treated differently? Are we not all citizens, with equal responsibility? Do we not all use the same public services? Do we not all need national security ( our military )?