Jeff Bezos claims child tax credit.

[DoggyDaddy]

Tax everyone until we’re all poor and only the tax collectors are rich.




It’s the only way to be fair.

Should 5% appear too small, be thankful I don't take it all...

 

[Leo]

You are mis-stating things again. That would be the first $9700 dollars of AGI. The standard deduction would exempt the first $12400 of your income even if you had no other deductions, so to max out the 10% bracket under those conditions, you would have made $22100

I would like to see real life examples of people that earn anything and get by with paying less than 4% in tax. (not counting welfare) I believe it is impossible. If there is a way, I have been wasting 50-60% of my income for the last 45 years. The kid in my example really exists and was a minor until this spring. He paid more than 4%. Even people with earned income credit that pay no Federal income tax, still get taxed for social security, Medicare, Various state taxes, fees, property tax, federal, state and local gas tax, 911 tax on the phones, etc.

 

[BugI02]

I would like to see real life examples of people that earn anything and get by with paying less than 4% in tax. (not counting welfare) I believe it is impossible. If there is a way, I have been wasting 50-60% of my income for the last 45 years. The kid in my example really exists and was a minor until this spring. He paid more than 4%. Even people with earned income credit that pay no Federal income tax, still get taxed for social security, Medicare, Various state taxes, fees, property tax, federal, state and local gas tax, 911 tax on the phones, etc.

The average social security benefit is just under $1550 per month. Say you were getting that, so that would be $18600 per year

Then say you had $400000 in a rollover IRA conservatively invested in dividend stocks currently paying about 3% per year. That would be $12000 per year but would only appear as taxable income to the extent you pulled it from the IRA and spent it (assuming you had not reached the age of mandatory distributions)

You could pull and spend that whole $12000 and only half of your social security benefits would be taxable, so your AGI would be:

$9300 + 12000 = $21300

taking the standard deduction of $12400, your taxable income would be:

$21300 - 12400 = $8900

That would all fall under the 10% bracket, so your tax would be $890

Your actual income was $18600 + 12000 = $30600

Thus $890 ÷ 30600 = 0.0291 so your effective tax rate would be 2.9%

 

[Leo]

Interesting figures, you win. I am still at above 60% of income going for taxes for my household, I guess I need to sue 45 years of CPA's for incompetence. Are you taking clients? btw, where are all the other taxes?.

 

[BugI02]

Interesting figures, you win. I am still at above 60% of income going for taxes for my household, I guess I need to sue 45 years of CPA's for incompetence. Are you taking clients? btw, where are all the other taxes?.

They're in the standard deduction. State, local and property tax are deductible if you itemize but you don't get the standard deduction. You and/or your tax guy make the choice to itemize or not based on the magnitude of those other expenses. Sales taxes are only somewhat deductible in certain situations

I find it difficult to conceive of even the summation of all taxes reaching 60% of income in any rational place of residence. You're not living in Manhattan or Basking Ridge, are you? Perhaps you should give some specifics. I only set up the example because you said you didn't see how someone could have a tax rate of under 4%. When phrased like that, it usually means effective tax rate for federal tax. That's the only thing that varies solely by income. The other taxes are variable by what state and city or town you live in

For example, the town I live in has property taxes 60% higher than Columbus proper and a 2% city income tax. Those are taxes I CHOOSE to pay to live where I do. I could also choose to live in a state with no state tax but I do not

Perhaps striving to minimize your own taxes would be better than kvetching about what someone else is paying, if it bothers you so much. I will say that it is naive to believe that if FedGov collects more revenue from the 1% that your taxes would be likely to go down. They always spend more than they take in so why would you assume that greater revenue wouldn't just encourage to spend more on their pet projects

 

[jamil]

The cognitive dissonance is strong with this topic.

put simply, child tax credit was designed for middle and low income. The fact that many here are cheering someone’s extremely creative accounting to get out of paying taxes is disturbing.

what’s more disturbing is that many think this has no effect on you the middle income earners. Someone has to fund the federal government (it’s too big but that’s another topic). Regardless of how much printers go brrr the government has to collect taxes or the system collapses. If they are only collecting let’s say 10-15k from a rich person who made 1.68 million instead of the let’: just say 201,000. ( 12% effective tax rate, that’s what I think I paid last year all said and done) then that other 190k has to come from somewhere.

this effects you and I. They say there is no funding for the roads, schools, military, social security ,Medicare well of course there isn’t enough when the rich and powerful are paying. 1-2% effective tax rate.

Hold on. No one is cheering anything. Defending someone’s right to take an exemption isn’t the same thing as cheering it. We’re just saying he has every right to take the exemption. You don’t like it. Okay. Noted. I don’t think it’s controversial that he took the exemption, unless he lied and doesn’t actually have the kids he claimed.

And cognitive dissonance? Are you sure you understand what that means?

 

[patience0830]

Your good.

You're.

 

[jamil]

How did we get out of debt post WW2?

What does that have to do with it now? We’re $23T in debt. Taxing billionaires income isn’t gonna pay that off.

And if you want to know, the US shrunk the WWII debt through increasing economic growth.

 

[Hatin Since 87]

What does that have to do with it now? We’re $23T in debt. Taxing billionaires income isn’t gonna pay that off.

And if you want to know, the US shrunk the WWII debt through increasing economic growth.

Which isn’t difficult when the world leaders are all rebuilding.

 

[jamil]

Which isn’t difficult when the world leaders are all rebuilding.

Babies wasn’t all that was booming post WWII.

 

[BigRed]

This is everything that’s wrong with the tax system.

tax the wealth. It’s now obvious that it’s the only way to get a real fair share out of them.

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The central state does not have a "tax" problem. It has a "spend" problem.

 

[rooster]

What does that have to do with it now? We’re $23T in debt. Taxing billionaires income isn’t gonna pay that off.

And if you want to know, the US shrunk the WWII debt through increasing economic growth.

I’m sure it had nothing to do with 90% tax rates on the rich. Which coincidentally happened at the same time as record growth and expansion.

it’s almost like those with the most to lose are also the ones telling us that taxing the rich doesn’t work.

https://web.stanford.edu/class/polisci120a/immigration/Federal%20Tax%20Brackets.pdf

 

[rooster]

Tax instructions 1950. Brackets are on last page.

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-prior/i1040--1950.pdf

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[phylodog]

it’s almost like those with the most to lose are also the ones telling us that taxing the rich doesn’t work.

No, it’s kind of like saying that if you disproportionately punish success you end up with widespread mediocrity.

Socialism has no place in this country.

 

[phylodog]

You should start a business, work long hours, sacrifice, bust your nuts for a few years, hire some employees then come tax season you should be sure to give all of your profits to the government so that at the end of the day you make the same as the convicted felon janitor you hired to sweep up at night. You know, something along the lines of:

"From each according to his ability, to each according to his need"​

I mean, that's the American way, am I right?

 

[rooster]

No, it’s kind of like saying that if you disproportionately punish success you end up with widespread mediocrity.

Socialism has no place in this country.

Call it what you want but you cannot deny the greatest period of economic expansion also occurred during a time when corporate and personal taxes where at their very highest levels ever.

that’s incompatible with modern republican ideas of cutting taxes to stimulate growth though. Republicans and conservatives now would have you believe that if you put in a 90% tax rate on the top 5% with no carve outs that the entire system would collapse. History clearly shows that’s not what happens.

Corporate tax rates and economic growth since 1947

Cutting corporate taxes won't spur economic growth, and there is no evidence that high corporate taxes have a negative impact on the economy. In fact, there is no correlation at all between corporate tax rates and economic growth.

www.epi.org

 

[phylodog]

Call it what you want but you cannot deny the greatest period of economic expansion also occurred during a time when corporate and personal taxes where at their very highest levels ever.

that’s incompatible with modern republican ideas of cutting taxes to stimulate growth though. Republicans and conservatives now would have you believe that if you put in a 90% tax rate on the top 5% with no carve outs that the entire system would collapse. History clearly shows that’s not what happens.

Corporate tax rates and economic growth since 1947

Cutting corporate taxes won't spur economic growth, and there is no evidence that high corporate taxes have a negative impact on the economy. In fact, there is no correlation at all between corporate tax rates and economic growth.

www.epi.org

You can herald socialism all you want but it doesn't make it suitable for this country.

I've a sneaking suspicion your tune would change should you happen to find yourself flush with money. That doesn't matter right now though, does it? **** those rich bastards, they don't deserve anything more than you have, right? Someone else should pay more than you because you deserve to keep more of what you earn than other people do.

I get it. I don't feel entitled to what other people have, don't suppose I'll ever understand that perspective.

 

[Hatin Since 87]

**** it. Make the tax rate 100%. We’ll have economic growth from here to Japan. Right?


Oh. You mean people won’t work if they receive none of their money? Gee, Who woulda thunk it?

 

[rooster]

That doesn't matter right now though, does it? **** those rich bastards, they don't deserve anything more than you have.

I hold no delusions of grandeur. I’m well aware that at best I’ve done a little better than my father and his father before him but I still put on work boots every day and a tool belt fairly regularly, I’ll never own a super yacht and I’m ok with that.

I’m not of the owning class and even if I start a business another I will still most likely be in the working class.

many are mislead about classes and think it’s got to do with income. Income has nothing to do with it. The only thing that matters is who owns the means of production and who is the worker.

 

[phylodog]

The only thing that matters is who owns the means of production and who is the worker.

Who owns the means of production. Oh, you mean the people who put it all on the line, bust their asses, take all of the risk and build a business so the workers who did all of the "heavy lifting" of filling out a job application can come in after all of that is over and get their "fair" share.

Got it