“Roughly 47% of households will not owe any federal income tax..Why? (salaries, generation)

[strawberry2]

“In 2009, roughly 47% of households, or 71 million, will not owe any federal income tax, according to estimates by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.”

What is the reason for this? (not trying to be a smarta**, just curious)

[InformedConsent]

They don't have to pay their fair share.

[NewToCA]

Tax cuts by Bush helped contribute to this, though many of those folks wouldn't acknowledge this fact.

It is one of the reasons they favor raising income taxes, a 10% increase of nothing is...

[EinsteinsGhost]

Deductions, credits and exemptions. This is true of individuals who don't make enough, and corporations that had billions in profits.

[geofra]

They don't make enough or they make so much that they can afford to pay someone to find all of the tax loopholes (i.e., game the system).

[Oerdin]

We've had half a dozen threads on this topic so next time do a little searching so that the rest of us don't have to keep answering stupid questions over and over.

The short answer is retired people normally don't make enough to pay Federal income taxes. As the baby boomers all hit retirement age ever more of the population is becoming retired and so ends up not paying net income tax.

[HappyTexan]

Originally Posted by Oerdin

We've had half a dozen threads on this topic so next time do a little searching so that the rest of us don't have to keep answering stupid questions over and over.

The short answer is retired people normally don't make enough to pay Federal income taxes. As the baby boomers all hit retirement age ever more of the population is becoming retired and so ends up not paying net income tax.

Which is 2011 for the first of them to hit 65. Sure..some may go at out 62 but many are holding on to 65 which is next year. 1946 started the baby boomer generation.

[Smash255]

Those with kids under 18 who are deducting mortgage interest.

[HappyTexan]

Originally Posted by Smash255

Those with kids under 18 who are deducting mortgage interest.

Little more to it than that Smash255. I had a kid and a mortgage and I still had to pay.

Salary and investments come into play more than the child deduction and mortgage interest deduction.

The lower the salary the more than likely you'll pay 0 Income Taxes.
And salaries are going down as more service jobs take over those white collar jobs.

[boiseguy]

"fair share" is a terrible word to be throwing around..
I mean.. married couples get tax credits above single people.. therefore married people aren't paying their "fair share".. having children gets you tax credits... people who don't have kids don't get them... so on and so forth...