Can you handle Reality? Americans Making Over $50,000 a Year Paid 93.3 Percent of All Taxes in 2010

This should be no surprise to most of you who pay your fair share already!

Americans making over $50,000 paid most of the federal taxes that were paid in the U.S. in 2010.

According to statistics compiled from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by the Tax Foundation, those people making above $50,000 had an effective tax rate of 14.1 percent, and carried 93.3 percent of the total tax burden.

In contrast, Americans making less than $50,000 had an effective tax rate of 3.5 percent and their total share of the tax burden was just 6.7 percent.

Can anyone please explain how this is an equitable distribution of the nations tax Burden?

Here is the head scratching moment for me

Out of the 143 million tax returns that were filed with the IRS in 2010, 58 million – or 41 percent – of those filers were non-payers.

In other words, only 85 million actually paid taxes.

But Tax Foundation data also shows that people who didn’t pay any income tax received $105 billion in refundable tax credits from the IRS.

Some fun little bits of info.to put it into perspective in regards WHY our tax code needs to be trashed and reworked from scratch.

Additionally, statistics from the Tax Foundation shows that the federal tax code is 3.8 million words long – 3.5 times longer than all seven books of J.K. Rowling’s famous Harry Potter series combined.

The tax code word count has nearly tripled since 2001. Great for lawyers and CPA's!! The same lawyers who are creating this mess. It just gets more complicated with the passing of each tax season.

cnsnews.com...

It may very well be true but I know it wasn't me who paid that kind of tax to anybody. I did in the past but no longer and one just needs to take advantage of the tax code and income. My best,

People making over 50k paid about 93% of the taxes. Okay, how much of the overall wealth in the country did they possess? My guess is that the figures on that are about the same.

AKA it actually is probably pretty equitable.

That doesn't mean that people making 50k paid in 93% tax rate.
It means that the wealth disparity is so high, that this happens.
Sorry, but the top 10% takes in something like 80% of the income.

reply to post by AnIntellectualRedneck


Is it equitable to give $105 billion in refundable tax credits to those who have zero federal income tax liablitiy?

A healthy nation cannot function when it gets this far out of balance. When the 51% or more pay zero and still collect money we have a problem. It is not a tipping point that this nation can afford.

Either flatten out the tax rate or ditch all federal income tax and the IRS and move to a consumption tax (not a VAT)

Originally posted by Ghost375
That doesn't mean that people making 50k paid in 93% tax rate.
It means that the wealth disparity is so high, that this happens.
Sorry, but the top 10% takes in something like 80% of the income.

This doesn't mean much to me. Federal taxes? What about state, local, property, sales taxes, permits, licenses, tags, gas tax,

Only ones not paying tax that I know of are the churches.

My question would be how much, as a percentage, would one pay in taxes when all the various taxes are counted?

I'm talking about all those little taxes that show up on utility bills, at the grocery checkout, at the local sporting event, the DMV, so on and so forth.

A lot of people who make below $50K get nickeled and dimed every day. Death by a thousand cuts, or in this case over 90 cuts:

WhatisTaxed.com: List of Other Taxes

reply to post by jibeho


Can you show sources to go along with this? Your tax rates seem a bit off. When people talk about paying their fair share, they are speaking in terms of individual tax rates. Obviously if you are making 10x's the income of your neighbor, you're going to pay more taxes than he is, what people are upset about is the fact that you might be paying 20% of your income to taxes while he's paying 25%. That is what people find unjust, this isn't a hard concept to grasp, yet so many people on here don't get it.

Originally posted by jibeho

Can anyone please explain how this is an equitable distribution of the nations tax Burden?

Wrap you head around this one:

The state of Illinois is tied for 5th place in the number of electoral votes, based upon population.

California 55
Texas 34
New York 31
Florida 27
Illinois 21
Pennsylvania 21
www.archives.gov...

Yet, for every $1 the residents of Illinois pay in taxes the federal government only provides less than 75 cents back to the residents of Illinois in total aid and assistance and other programs....

While the states with the richest people living in them get 700 to 800% back in federal assistance and aid and other programs alloted for their budget.

More than 1/4 of all the taxes the residents of my state pay have been going somewhere else and getting spent somewhere else ... usually where richer people live in other states and also in aid of other countries.

reply to post by EyesWideShut


This is as far as I could get with the IRS. Only up to 2009. Not sure if the Tax Foundation is privy to greater info. than the rest of us.

www.irs.gov...=133521,00.html

reply to post by jibeho


I'll try to get you some legit rates in a few...

reply to post by jibeho


Who would've thought, people who make exponentially more money pay more money in taxes...but, in what appears to be most cases, a lower rate.

It sounds like you're arguing for a regressive tax rate, where the richer you are the lower your taxes should be. That'll even the playing field alright.

reply to post by jibeho


And giver that terrible inequity in tax rate those making over 50,000 still lived a whole lot better than those making less than 50,000. Amazing!

reply to post by ILikeStars


Does that federal spending include the investigative and trial costs to put our last 2 governors behind bars? lol

Oh thank god those people that make over $50,000.00 a year paid everyone's gasoline tax, property tax, cigarette tax, sales tax, etc! I was wondering when I was gonna be able to pay .50c a pack for smokes again.

Originally posted by oghamxx
reply to post by ILikeStars

 

Does that federal spending include the investigative and trial costs to put our last 2 governors behind bars? lol

I don't think so, but I sure can understand the federal government getting upset when governors of states try to steal the money that the federal government is trying to steal from said state's citizens. Get rid of the competition, right?

Originally posted by hadriana

This doesn't mean much to me. Federal taxes? What about state, local, property, sales taxes, permits, licenses, tags, gas tax,

Good points. And does it include the withholding tax deducted from paychecks every week?

Every time I hear somebody talk about how certain Americans pay no income taxes they never include the fact that a big chunk of their pay is withheld from their paychecks each and every week.

reply to post by Classified Info

Every time I hear somebody talk about how certain Americans pay no income taxes they never include the fact that a big chunk of their pay is withheld from their paychecks each and every week.

And even though those people do get a refund. Guess what? Often, they do not get back the full amount they paid in. Especially if they are single and have no dependents. They don't get a child tax credit, or if they earn above a certain amount and they don't get the earned income credit.

So what do these people call the amount the government keeps from my pay at the end of the year? Sure it's not a whole hell of a lot, but what, does that not count? Are these people so bad with math that they think that if you get back any amount at all from your taxes that it means you get it all back?

They all can't be THAT stupid right?

Originally posted by HauntWok
They all can't be THAT stupid right?

Some people, in their absolute opposition to taxes, don't realize that they can get money back if they just do a few things, withholding throughout the year being one of them. So these people then end up paying at the end of the year, even if they only made $50k or $60k. They then I have the idea that they're paying their taxes while their neighbor, making less than them, is getting money back. Thus spawning the idea that the poorer you are, the more the government gives you and that somehow, the middle-class is under attack from these horrid tax rates.

Some people just really, really don't know how to do their taxes and are too stubborn or proud or stupid to just pay someone to do it for them.

If earning less than 50k has so many enviable tax benefits, then quit your job and find one that pays under 50 k or ask for a pay reduction. Then quit the whinging. If earning less than 50k makes you worse off, then shut your mouth and quit bemoaning.