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Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Analysis: 'Fair Share' In Taxes? Not By The Numbers

As Americans sit down to file their federal tax returns, a simple question comes to mind -- what's a "fair share" to give the federal government in taxes?

For half the working population, fair means paying almost no income taxes at all.

"The top 10 percent income earners pay about 70 percent of federal income taxes," says Will McBride of the Tax Foundation. "The bottom 50 percent of tax filers have, they pay almost no federal income tax. They pay about 3 percent of federal income taxes."

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Talk about smoke & mirrors... Who pays the social security, medicare, telephone, automobie, luxury, etc, etc taxes. In reality federal Income Tax is only a small part of the taxes collected from us. These taxes may have different names, but the money is all spent without regard to where it came from, as evidenced by the Social Security "fund" and the postal retirement "fund". It's Smoke & Mirrors AND Creative Accounting!!

Anonymous said...

that "50% pay no taxes" figure has long been debunked. For one, many of those individuals not paying income tax are retirees who have been paying taxes their entire working lives.

Anonymous said...

this is total bs, the bottom are getting back thousands of dollars in our tax money. way beyond anthing they've ver paid in. I'd like to know when you get your tax bill down to 0 how they can then turn that into a healthy profit. Happpens every year. Why should the government be giving you other peoples hard earned tax dollars just cause you sit on your ass and already get every freakin government handout known to man!

lmclain said...

How about the millions who get the (don't laugh) "Earned Income Credit"? Where was it "earned", or am I confusing definitions here?? Most WORKING people LIMIT the number of children they have because kids are expensive. That is, if you actually have to support them YOUSELF. And I always have had a job because I was raised to take care of myself (and my family). Now, it seems that it's acceptable and encouraged (!) to have as many kids as you want and not have a job, so you can get the kids on SSI (disability for being punk-ass hooligans), and get the $3,000-$9000 "earned income credick) for NOT having a job or paying any taxes. obama thinks THAT'S their "fair share"? Or does he avoid that subject while he demands even MORE of the working people's money and sacrifice, because even if you don't like to work, you still can vote. God have mercy on us.....please.

Anonymous said...

It would be easy to fix this.. and a fair way to fix this. Your taxes are equal to your total of GDP.

Any money earned... in any way, investments, work income, etc... are tallied as income. This number is tracked and tallied. Your percentage of this gathered number, is the percentage of tax burden you pay (say your percentage of this tallied number is 25%, then you pay 25% of this "income" as taxes). This is the only equitable, or fair way to calculate the tax burden.

A flat tax sounds nice, but it is still not representative of an accurate burden when compared to actual income percentages.

Anonymous said...

Most people's taxes don't cover the wear they put on infrastructure locally and beyond. This time of year always brings out the haters over EIC. Well, i'm taking my 8 grand and laughing all the way to the bank.