President Obama’s “Buffett Rule” is aimed at ensuring that wealthy Americans pay their fair share in taxes.
As it stands today, a wealthy individual can take advantage of preferential tax treatment of investment income and various tax loopholes to drastically lower his or her tax rate and effectively pay lower taxes than middle-class families. To prove the point behind his namesake, billionaire Warren Buffett revealed to Republicans yesterday that he made more than $62 million last year while only paying a 17 percent tax rate.
It is not surprising that Republicans like GOP candidate Mitt Romney who slam the Buffett Rule as “class warfare” simultaneously benefit from the same sort of preferential treatment. In fact, a new report by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service finds that 25 percent of the nation’s millionaires have a lower effective tax rate than 10.4 million middle-class Americans:
MoreAbout 25 percent of millionaires in the U.S. pay federal taxes at lower effective rates than a significant portion of middle-income taxpayers, according to a legislative analysis.Preferential treatment of investment income and the reduced impact of payroll taxes on high earners lets about 94,500 millionaires pay taxes at a lower rate than 10.4 million “moderate-income taxpayers,” representing about 10 percent of those making less than $100,000 a year, according to the report by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service dated Oct. 7.
5 comments:
It stands to reason then that 75% of millionaires pay more taxes than the moderate income middle class.
Implement the fair tax; everybody pays including the loafers on welfare!
I am in the 35% tax bracket and personally I am sick and tired of paying for other people's poor choices. I can't be the only who feels this way, am I?
If I was a millionaire, I would certainly start moving my money off shore, like yesterday. I imagine that "millionaire's" give away more money in charitable contributions than they pay in taxes. So pay more taxes or charitable giving?
Paying your fair share, means the lower income families have to pay some too. No more earned income credits, or child deductions, etc.
I am all for a flat tax that every one has to pay.
The bat has to swing both ways.
12:13pm
Heres something for you to chew on:
400 of the top earners in the US are worth more than the bottom 150 MILLION.
Seem right to you?
And dont use the charitable scapegoat, they get a large portion of the money they "donate" back in tax returns.
Let's just take away the loopholes for those making the 35% tax bracket. See how you like it then.
The millionaires moving their money off shore is a big part of the problem!
Post a Comment