The Rich Don't Pay Enough?!

[Polk]

And why should I pay a lower rate on income I earn from an investment than income I earned through labor?

Excellent, you agree we should lower income tax rates. You're beginning to come around...

We should have tax rates commensurate with spending over the life of a business cycle.

That's a radical idea.

 

[peach174]

The Government already gets 2.2 Trillion every year.
We should not pay one more penny till they get rid of waste,fraud and abuse first.

 

[Politico]

I love how people arguing taxation use percentage of tax paid as the same as percent of income paid.

 

[Polk]

The Government already gets 2.2 Trillion every year.
We should not pay one more penny till they get rid of waste,fraud and abuse first.

I've always found the idea that there is widespread waste, fraud, and abuse to be odd. That only makes sense if you think there is some segment who's only goal is to maximize government spending.

 

[8537]

I just wanna know why passive income should be taxed less than earned income.

Several reasons. First, experience suggests that a low rate of tax on capital gains increases capital investment and new business formation. This is why many countries have NO tax on capital gains.

The justification for a lower tax rate on capital gains relative to ordinary income is threefold: it is not indexed for inflation, it is a double tax, and it encourages present consumption over future consumption.

Inflation: Cap gains is not adjusted for inflation, so any appreciation of assets is taxed at the nominal instead of the real value. This means investors must pay tax not only on the real return but also on the inflation created by the Federal Reserve.

Double taxation: The capital gains tax is part of a long line of federal taxation of the same dollar of income. Wages are first taxed by payroll and personal income taxes, then again by the corporate income tax if one chooses to invest in corporate equities, and then again when those investments pay off in the form of dividends and capital gains. This puts corporations at a disadvantage relative to pass through business entities, whose owners pay personal income tax on distributed profits, instead of taxes on corporate income, capital gains, and dividends.

Consumption: A capital gains tax, like nearly all of the federal tax code, is a tax on future consumption. Future personal consumption, in the form of savings, is taxed, while present consumption is not. By favoring present over future consumption, savings are discouraged, which decreases future available capital and lowers long term growth.

The inflation argument is a valid one, but doesn't set out an ethical argument against capital gains (only a potential technical one).

The other two are just inaccurate. The consumption argument is really a spin on the double taxation argument, so I'll focus on that one. The money is not being "double-taxed". It's the gains that are being taxed, not the entire sum.

If Capital gains taxes encourage consumption then the sales tax is a tool to encourage investment

But the man has multiple advanced degrees in economics, so who are we to doubt him?

 

[peach174]

The Government already gets 2.2 Trillion every year.
We should not pay one more penny till they get rid of waste,fraud and abuse first.

I've always found the idea that there is widespread waste, fraud, and abuse to be odd. That only makes sense if you think there is some segment who's only goal is to maximize government spending.

Over spending Tax dollars is abuse of tax dollars.
No one ever said a word about widespread abuse, fraud and waste. When added up in small groups, through the whole government, we would probably find that it adds up to quite a large amount.

According to Inspector General’s office, from an interview conducted with a GSA employee, several GSA officials flew to Hawaii for five to seven days in 2011 in order to attend an hour-long ribbon-cutting on space leased by the federal government. The employee interviewed stated this was not an isolated incident, and referenced another,
longer scheduled trip to Hawaii that had not yet occurred.

Tax payers do not want GSA officials taking a Hawaii vacation on their hard earned money.
They can pay for their own vacation, not from the tax payers.
One day and one night's stay, would have been sufficient for a one hour ribbon cutting ceremony.

 

[Polk]

Key word: widespread. Is there some waste and abuse? Sure. The notion that it's rampant is what I was taking issue with.

 

[peach174]

Key word: widespread. Is there some waste and abuse? Sure. The notion that it's rampant is what I was taking issue with.

No one has said rampant.
I bet we would find around 500 billion or more when you go through the whole government.

Government Waste, Fraud and Abuse - Part 3

The GAO study reported widespread and abuse across the programs.

Some job training participants spent their days sitting on a bus.
Some were trained for jobs that didn’t exist.
Others were paid to sit through educational sessions about jobs they already had.
High school students were knowingly exposed to the cancer-causing agent asbestos as part of a job training program.
Funds were misspent to pay a contractor for ghost employees and to purchase video games.
Job training administrators spent federal funds on extravagant meals and bonuses for themselves.
In one state, workforce agency employees took more than 100 gambling trips to casinos mostly during work hours.

 

[Polk]

You say no one has said it's rampant, then claim it's over ten percent of the budget.

 

[Too Tall]

The Rich Don't Pay Enough?


1. According to IRS 2007 data, the richest 1 percent of Americans earned 22 percent of national personal income but paid 40 percent of all personal income taxes.

2. The top 5 percent earned 37 percent and paid 61 percent of personal income tax.

3. The top 10 percent earned 48 percent and paid 71 percent of all personal income taxes.

4. The bottom 50 percent earned 12 percent of personal income but paid just 3 percent of income tax revenues.

5. President Obama and the Democratic Party harp about tax fairness. Here's my fairness question to you:

What standard of fairness dictates that the top 10 percent of income earners pay 71 percent of the federal income tax burden while 47 percent of Americans pay absolutely nothing?

6. Here's the question for us:

Is the U.S. moving toward or away from the troubled EU nations? It turns out that our national debt to GDP ratio in the 1970s was 35 percent; now it's 106 percent of GDP. If you think we're immune from the economic chaos in some of the EU countries, you're whistling Dixie.

And when economic chaos comes, whom do you think will be more affected by it: rich people or poor people?

The Rich Don't Pay Enough? - Walter E. Williams - Page 2

These are the facts and they are being ignored by the MSM. Until the tax burden is shared by all, the entire population is not going to be talking or learning about tax cuts or raises and have no opinion about them. They will just be part of the 50% of the those willing to take government handouts regardless of the repercussions to the country as a whole.

The top 1% own more wealth than the bottom 90% combined, they should be paying 90% of the taxes, not 40%.

Under our tax code, wealth is not taxed, income is.

 

[Too Tall]

THE COMING TAX INCREASES - A COMPARISON
Current Capital Gains tax rates.....................Coming Jan 2013
Conventional Short-Term 35.0%..........................43.4%
Conventional Long-Term 15.0%. .........................23.8%