Their money working for them. I think this is as it should be. But, all kind of inheritance should be banned, or to be created at heavy tax. That way, a rich self made person got to have and spend his money any way he wants, and at the same time, undeserved millionaire and billionaire get taxed.
For the first time on record, the 400 wealthiest Americans paid a lower tax rate
101–110 of 504 posts
Re: For the first time on record, the 400 wealthiest Americans paid a lower tax rate
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
The graph in article is effective, not marginal. The poorest do pay less in absolute numbers because they are poor, that's a statement of income inequality, not progressivity of the tax rate.
> The graph in article is effective, not marginal. The article is not very clear on that, and there is nothing to indicate such on the plot itself (which will be taken out-of-context at some point).
If you have a basic understanding of tax rates in the US, this shouldn't come as a surprise. The marginal tax rate always goes up as you earn more income, so for the graph to show it going down then it must be the effective tax rate.
But I agree, it probably will be taken out of context and unfortunately not everyone has even a basic understanding of how taxes work.
Re: For the first time on record, the 400 wealthiest Americans paid a lower tax rate
#103The argument for corporate income tax is misplaced. Many socialist countries have a low (or no) corporate income tax and that's goods. A country shouldn't tax the things it would like to encourage. In this case, that companies re-invest and not pull the funds out to pay investors. Capital gains tax should probably be mentioned. Why is it a much lower rate than income tax? Why not talk about that? Strange also that th…
Which socialist countries are you talking about? The entire list is tragically short.
Re: For the first time on record, the 400 wealthiest Americans paid a lower tax rate
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
These numbers are consistent across studies, and across countries. So try harder next time you want to discredit sources of data you don't like.
As others have commented, their very choice of the top 1% when talking about the super-rich is a disingenuous one.
Also why are we comparing the very rich to the very poor only? What about the middle class? Certainly rich pay a lot less than the middle and middle upper class.
Re: For the first time on record, the 400 wealthiest Americans paid a lower tax rate
#105Of course they do. They can afford personal accountants and other full-time professionals that all they do fiscal optimization for them, trying to explore every loophole in the system for their advantage. They can open a company, declare expenses and claim a low salary, thet can put the money offshore or on Switzerland, and all those tax-avoiding schemas that are not doable by the common citizen.
What exactly is it that you think putting the money in Switzerland accomplishes? The US asserts that any income you make anywhere in the world is subject to US income tax. Living inside a corporation is very difficult, and the IRS takes a pretty dim view of people who try it. But don’t take my word for it: Ask Wesley Snipes. He spent 3 years in a federal penitentiary for trying.
There’s a small deduction that’s not indexed to inflation, and you can also deduct any local taxes you might have paid.
Re: For the first time on record, the 400 wealthiest Americans paid a lower tax rate
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yup. That's the strategy the Military uses - https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/pent... "At a cost of $400 million, some 1,200 auditors charged into the jungle of military finance, but returned in defeat. They were unable to pass the Pentagon or flunk it. They could only offer no opinion, explaining the military’s empire of hundreds of acronymic accounting silos was too illogical to penetrate"
This is just a single example but it was eye opening when my friend told me about one of his clients. He is the chief mechanic at an exotic car dealership and one of their biggest customers is an active duty general in the Marines, this guy has millions of USD worth of cars.
Each general is the CEO of a multi-thousand person organization. Whether CEO pay is reasonable is a different discussion, but it would be surprising if generals were not paid well.
Re: For the first time on record, the 400 wealthiest Americans paid a lower tax rate
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
Forgive me if I am misinterpreting, but wouldn't the taxes of an individual general in the Marines be completely different from the Department of Defense itself?
The implication was that they should be distinct but are not.
I didn't get that at all. Can you explain?
Re: For the first time on record, the 400 wealthiest Americans paid a lower tax rate
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure how informative that is. It's natural for the poorest 50% to pay a lot less tax; they first need to have enough money to eat and live before they can even afford to pay taxes. This is simply progressive taxation at work. Although I suppose showing that the top 1% has 19% of the income while the bottom 50% has 11% of the income does show the vast income discrepancy.
I agree, but the parent is responding to the article’s claim that the rich pay less. This isn’t in support of the parent’s comment, just trying to clarify the conversation and root out accidental straw men.
> the parent is responding to the article’s claim that the rich pay less.
The article appears to be discussing the individual tax rates paid by the wealthiest, not the percentage of total tax paid. Those are two different things.
The GP appears to have introduced the latter statistic, as often happens in this debate, to distract from the actual statistic under discussion.
Re: For the first time on record, the 400 wealthiest Americans paid a lower tax rate
#109[deleted]
Re: For the first time on record, the 400 wealthiest Americans paid a lower tax rate
#110So since this is all 100% legal, are there resources available for people like us in the upper middle class bracket working as engineers in Silicon Valley to take advantage of all this? Almost half of my salary goes to taxes every paycheck. That’s almost $150,000 I literally never get to see just taken away.
You do see it though. In your roads, your public libraries, educated working-class, your parks, your clean air, your safe-to-drink milk, etc etc etc
And in your delivery rooms, where in half of the states, more than half of all children are born to parents who are on Medicaid.