About 47 percent of households paid no federal income tax in 2009. Either they owed nothing, or they got as much back from the federal government as they paid. (They do pay payroll taxes, state and local taxes, gas taxes, excise taxes and more) Right now about one-third of the 47% are people are too old to work, full time students, disability beneficiaries, or unemployed.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
About 47 percent of households paid no federal income tax in 2009. Either they owed nothing, or they got as much back from the federal government as they paid. (They do pay payroll taxes, state and local taxes, gas taxes, excise taxes and more) Right now about one-third of the 47% are people are too old to work, full time students, disability beneficiaries, or unemployed.
OK Box, on a thread here a few days ago, YOU said that MOST of the 47% were "too old to work, full time students, disability beneficiaries, or unemployed". I guess most means 1/3 to you.
"Arguing with liberals is like playing chess with a pigeon; no matter how good I am at chess, the pigeon is just going to knock out the pieces, crap on the board, and strut around like it is victorious." - Author Unknown
More tax lust from Box. What conclusion do you draw from this, we need to find a way for the other 70% to be in school, old, or disabled?
Curious that Cicero posts what 'he believes my conclusion to be'...
Lets see how that works... let me try:
More Tax Avoidance by Cicero. What conclusion does Cicero draw from this... Cicero thinks he needs to find a way to hide his taxable income from the IRS.
It works great! You can just smear people who you know nothing about as if you were posting their words for them. Really Cicero... kinda lame isn't it?
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
OK Box, on a thread here a few days ago, YOU said that MOST of the 47% were "too old to work, full time students, disability beneficiaries, or unemployed". I guess most means 1/3 to you.
When Conservatives spew their anti tax propaganda, they usually say that the 47% pay no taxes. As I posted, 70% of that group do pay taxes, just not income taxes. The other 30%... Seniors students and even the disabled also pay state and local taxes, gas taxes, excise taxes and more.
The Conservative propaganda would have you believe these people are freeloaders sucking from the system... as you watch the richest Americans bleed us dry, who pay less taxes than the middle class working men and women.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
When Conservatives spew their anti tax propaganda, they usually say that the 47% pay no taxes. As I posted, 70% of that group do pay taxes, just not income taxes. The other 30%... Seniors students and even the disabled also pay state and local taxes, gas taxes, excise taxes and more.
The Conservative propaganda would have you believe these people are freeloaders sucking from the system... as you watch the richest Americans bleed us dry, who pay less taxes than the middle class working men and women.
It goes both ways, Box.. The Liberal propaganda will lead you to believe that EVERY rich person out there pays less in taxes than middle class working men and women. If that were the case, how does the top 1% pay 38% of all income taxes collected?
Take a look at table one. The average rate of the top one percent is 23.27%. The next highest rate is the top 5% group at 20%. While there may be anecdotal examples, the theory of the rich paying less than the middle class is bullshit.
"Arguing with liberals is like playing chess with a pigeon; no matter how good I am at chess, the pigeon is just going to knock out the pieces, crap on the board, and strut around like it is victorious." - Author Unknown
Bartering is becoming an alternative and is being practiced by many many folks across the country. Services and goods are being bartered all the time between private citizens and even small businesses. So no taxes there.
Then there is the lucrative multi billion dollar drug business!!! No taxes there.
.............just to name a few.....
I agree....tax the rich!!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
It goes both ways, Box.. The Liberal propaganda will lead you to believe that EVERY rich person out there pays less in taxes than middle class working men and women. If that were the case, how does the top 1% pay 38% of all income taxes collected?
Take a look at table one. The average rate of the top one percent is 23.27%. The next highest rate is the top 5% group at 20%. While there may be anecdotal examples, the theory of the rich paying less than the middle class is bullshit.
Apples and Oranges.
Total Effective Federal Tax Rate or
Total Effective Individual Income Tax Rate
They are two different things. Conservatives cite the 'Total Effective Federal Tax Rate' (for 2007) 29.5%. They deny the actual rate which is the 'Total Effective Individual Income Tax Rate' (for 2007) 19%.
As long as the Rich can keep the issue confused with conflicting terms, the public will be fooled into thinking that they rich pay their fair share. Warren Buffett pays less than anyone in his office... about 17% , while his staff pay as much as 32%. Warren isn't hiding his taxable income in shelters and doesn't use "creative bookkeeping" to lower his tax burden, as many of the rich do...
Remember: ~ ""The Comfort of the Rich depends on the abundance of the poor." ~ Capitalism requires that there be an underclass that can be exploited.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
"Approval ratings go up and down for various reasons... An example is the high post 911 support for GWB even though he could be said to be responsible for the event." --- Box A Rox '9/11 Truther'
Melania is a bimbo... she is there to look at, not to listen to. --- Box A Rox and his 'War on Women'
Warren Buffet May Owe A Billion Dollars In Back Taxes Obama’s favorite billionaire isn’t quite ready to practice what he preaches. by John Hayward 08/31/2011 215 Comments
Warren Buffett, President Obama’s pet billionaire, spends a great deal of time calling for tax increases on wealthy people. He began a recent New York Times op-ed, entitled “Stop Coddling the Super-Rich,” as follows:
OUR leaders have asked for “shared sacrifice.” But when they did the asking, they spared me. I checked with my mega-rich friends to learn what pain they were expecting. They, too, were left untouched.
While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks. Some of us are investment managers who earn billions from our daily labors but are allowed to classify our income as “carried interest,” thereby getting a bargain 15 percent tax rate. Others own stock index futures for 10 minutes and have 60 percent of their gain taxed at 15 percent, as if they’d been long-term investors.
These and other blessings are showered upon us by legislators in Washington who feel compelled to protect us, much as if we were spotted owls or some other endangered species. It’s nice to have friends in high places.
That’s right, serfs: anything your benevolent “leaders” in Washington allow you to keep is a “blessing” that has been “showered” upon you. All money rightfully belongs to the State. It’s about time you spotted owls got with the program.
Funny thing is, it turns out Buffett was being… shall we say… disingenuous when he claimed his “leaders” never got around to asking for his “shared sacrifice.” His company, Berkshire Hathaway, has been fighting the IRS tooth and nail to avoid paying its federal tax bill for nearly a decade.
How much of the State’s rightful money has this hypocrite been clutching in a white-knuckled death grip? Oh, only about a billion dollars or so. Bill Wilson of Americans for Limited Government tallies up the bill:
Using only publicly-available documents, a certified public accountant (CPA) detailed Berkshire Hathaway’s tax problems to ALG researcher Richard McCarty. Now, the American people have a better idea of how much in back taxes the company could owe Uncle Sam.
According to page 56 of the company report, “At December 31, 2010… net unrecognized tax benefits were $1,005 million”, or about $1 billion. McCarty explained, “Unrecognized tax benefits represent the company’s potential future obligation to the IRS and other taxing authorities. They have to be recorded in the company’s financial statements.”
He added, “The notation means that Berkshire Hathaway’s own auditors have probably said that $1 billion is more likely than not owed to the government.”
On top of this tax bill, figure the value of the time IRS agents have invested trying to collect it – they don’t work cheap, and we pay their salaries – and the resources Buffett’s people have invested fighting back. All of which would have been saved if Buffett simply practiced what he preached, and willingly handed over his fortune to the brilliant and compassionate “leaders” he commands the rest of us to support without resistance.
Warren Buffet is no different from the other liars and frauds orbiting Barack Obama. His hypocrisy just runs billions of dollars deeper. When it comes to “shared sacrifice,” you do the sacrificing, and they do the sharing.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Owes Taxes Going Back To 2002 Warren Buffett
First Posted: 8/29/11 08:26 PM ET Updated: 8/30/11 02:04 PM ET
A little over two weeks ago, Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, the third-richest person in the world, penned an op-ed critical of the low tax rates for the superrich. It would seem his own company hasn't prioritized paying its rightful share in a timely fashion either.
Berkshire Hathaway, the eighth-largest public company in the world according to Forbes, openly admits to still owing taxes for years 2002 through 2004 and 2005 through 2009, according to the New York Post. The company says it expects to "resolve all adjustments proposed by the US Internal Revenue Service" within the next year. But The Post doesn't focus on the issue of a major corporation not paying its correct amount in taxes in a timely manner. Instead, the newspaper criticizes Buffett's position that America's rich should be taxed at a higher rate, taking issue with Buffett's claim that he gave 17 percent of his income to the government in 2010. The Post contends that since the majority of his income comes from dividends and capital games -- taxed indirectly through the corporate income tax -- "his effective rate would really be well north of 40 percent for a big chunk of his income."
"And if [Buffett's] firm wants to keep its tax bill low, well, that’s its right," The Post editors write. "But it would be nice if this 'pro-tax-hike' tycoon were a bit more honest about it."
This isn't the first conservative criticism of Buffett since his Op-Ed. Jon Stewart recently singled out one Fox News commentator who asked if Buffett was "completely a socialist?" Yes, the same man who last week dreamt up a $5 billion BofA deal in the bathtub
What The Post hence assumes is that Berkshire Hathaway pays taxes at the top marginal rate of 35 percent. The corporation's effective tax rate was last put at 29 percent, according to Forbes. More generally, due to a variety of breaks and loopholes, many U.S. corporations don't pay the top marginal rate. Over one-fourth of the U.S. corporations comprising the S&P 500 paid a corporate tax rate below 20 percent over the last half-decade, The New York Times recently reported.
At a minimum, "United States corporations pay only slightly more on average than their counterparts in other industrial countries," according to The New York Times. Indeed, corporate tax revenues are now nearing historic lows as a percentage of GDP.
Even historically, corporate tax rates and capital gains are low. From the 1950s to mid-1980s, the top marginal corporate tax rate hovered around 50 percent, according to Visualizing Economics. The capital gains tax, lowered to 15 percent in 2003, previously hadn't been that low since the Great Depression.
It's not only rich corporations that are legally able to avoid paying taxes either. Some 1,400 millionaires paid no income taxes whatsoever in 2009, according to tax data from the Internal Revenue Service.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
They are two different things. Conservatives cite the 'Total Effective Federal Tax Rate' (for 2007) 29.5%. They deny the actual rate which is the 'Total Effective Individual Income Tax Rate' (for 2007) 19%.
As long as the Rich can keep the issue confused with conflicting terms, the public will be fooled into thinking that they rich pay their fair share. Warren Buffett pays less than anyone in his office... about 17% , while his staff pay as much as 32%. Warren isn't hiding his taxable income in shelters and doesn't use "creative bookkeeping" to lower his tax burden, as many of the rich do...
Remember: ~ ""The Comfort of the Rich depends on the abundance of the poor." ~ Capitalism requires that there be an underclass that can be exploited.
You are arguing rate and I am arguing your original bullshit assertion that the rich pay less than the middle class. You give me another anecdote by Warren Buffett. Do you really think only the rich hide their income? The middle class does too, from inflating or flat out lying about charitable contributions to doing business in cash. However you want to slice it, according to the IRS, the top 25% are paying the 86% of all taxes.
We can argue whether or not the rich should have a higher rate, but they, as a group, are not paying a less rate, and certainly not less total income taxes, than the middle class.
"Arguing with liberals is like playing chess with a pigeon; no matter how good I am at chess, the pigeon is just going to knock out the pieces, crap on the board, and strut around like it is victorious." - Author Unknown
When Conservatives spew their anti tax propaganda, they usually say that the 47% pay no taxes. As I posted, 70% of that group do pay taxes, just not income taxes. The other 30%... Seniors students and even the disabled also pay state and local taxes, gas taxes, excise taxes and more.
The Conservative propaganda would have you believe these people are freeloaders sucking from the system... as you watch the richest Americans bleed us dry, who pay less taxes than the middle class working men and women.
but those AREN'T INCOME TAXES....
apples and oranges
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS