IRS: 1,470 millionaires paid no income tax

Originally posted by surrealist
...If the person earning $1,000,000 a year gross feels it is just so unfair to be taxed at the 35% rate

They don't. They think that paying MORE is unfair. At what point is it okay for the government to make more money from your labor than you do?

Let's not forget there are tons of taxes exclusively for the rich...Huge shares of property taxes, sales taxes, luxury taxes, dividend taxes, estate taxes, etc...

Originally posted by surrealist

Gee man, seriously? I cannot believe people think like this, but there seems to be quite a few. Please let me earn 1,000,000 per annum at 35% tax rate vs 50k per annum at 25% tax rate.

If the person earning $1,000,000 a year gross feels it is just so unfair to be taxed at the 35% rate, I am more than confident, given his / her skills and experience, that they can quit that job and take on a job earning $50,000 a year at the lower tax margin. Problem solved.

Tax aside, the person working their guts out for $50,000 a year will have to work 20 years to earn $1,000,000 gross.

The point is, the rich DO pay more taxes than the average person to the order of 10% more. Just because you have a personal vendetta against somebody with lots of money does not mean they should be taxed to high heaven.

How would you feel if, after working your butt off for twenty years in the same company, getting stepped on by so many people, but finally making it to the top, that you got taxed so badly you actually made the same as when you started? Would you even bother to work hard knowing that the harder you work, the less you get paid?

Originally posted by thisguyrighthere
Just more empty class warfare tripe to get the idiot mass roused into a rabble.

If I were you, I wouldn't discount "class warfare tripe" and the rabble.

Did you see what happened in Britain? Even the lower classes in the US have guns. Different story eh?

Want Peace? Work for justice!

reply to post by balon0


Really? We're supposed to line up for a Two Minutes Hate against those evil millionares because sixth tenths of one percent of them (0.6%... or one in every 167) didn't pay income tax in 2009? Does the OP realize that capital gains taxes aren't "income tax" according to the IRS and are their own entity? The IRS can consider an individual's entire gains as "income" but in the eyes of the tax code, if that individual made $0 in salary and $10 Million in capital gains, then they would have $10M in gross income, pay $0 in income tax but have to pay a $3.5 Million capital gains tax... which would allow the IRS to play games and say "Hey yo, unwashed masses, this goob didn't pay any income tax. direct your hatred at him." while keeping curiously quiet about the fact that they did pay their share, just not under the same name as the working joes did.

It all comes down to the old saying "a rose by any other name would still smell as sweet."

...been thinking about this...

Just watched The Daily Show going over something similar:

www.huffingtonpost.com...

Those whose income is quite high, did they make/inherit their wealth in this country? Do they live under the blanket of US military protection? Do they live with the support of the local police and fire department? Do they drive on state and federal roads? Do they prosper under these circumstances? Do they enjoy a Congress they virtually own who writes legislation in their favor? Well then, their taxes, which must be paying for all this, are doing a pretty good job. 235,000 millionaires can't be wrong. That US government must be a pretty solid investment (albeit imperfect) to underpin their business environment.

I guess one could argue if they are paying for it, it better run their way. For the most part, it seems to. Hell the more poor people you have and the more unemployed, the easier it is to hire cheaper labor. And you don't even have to go to China. That is unless you have to pay for them to be poor too while not getting anything out of them work-wise. That negates your investment. We need to work on that part.

If a family is poor (by the US Census, family of four, around $23K/year) what are they supposed to pay? They do not control squat. Might they be lazy and unproductive? Some are, no doubt. It does not mean they have any more money to throw in the pot. The bottom 50% control 2.5% of the wealth in this country. Even if they worked hard, changed their loafing ways, they might now control 3.0% of the countries wealth. Let's go wild and say 10% of the countries wealth. Now what? Even if they doubled their income to $46K per year, how much more blood do we expect to get out of that turnip? What will they have left to buy all the stuff which runs the economy?

Come to think of it, with the enormous trade deficit and outsourcing we have in this country, where are those increased wages going to come from? Doing each other's laundry? Working at Starbucks? Where is the work which will provide an increased cash flow into this nation to pay those now non-lazy taker-class people? What's up wealth creating class?

Instead of plying Washington with more cash to skew the tax code even further in their favor, it seems to me the job creator/wealth generating/etc class would do better by trying to turn this country around on the manufacturing front and stop blaming the federal government for their failures or using it as a cover for their greed.

I know the flame will come from those who will puke out Economics 101 as if we currently exist in a sterile classroom environment where X + Y always equals Z. It will come from those pissed off they have to pay taxes on their hard earned dollar while their lazy neighbor gets a welfare check. While I can empathize with the latter, the former need to ease off their causality high horse.

reply to post by ABNARTY


You lost me at wealth. Amerika wasn't really wealthy to begin with. For 70 years the world depended on USA. In turn these fatties partied their way to the printing presses. The "crisis" is just the illusory wealth being shaved off. This is the true wealth of the world.

reply to post by eldard


Granted it was a little ranty, I was POed

Wealth, as in wealth creators, wealth generators, etc. The latest phrase thrown around by many in the MSM to honor those with means versus the thankless unter mench with little or nothing. I make no claims to a finite definition in my post.

Good point on the illusory aspect. Agreed.