What is the fair share? How much income tax should a person pay?
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The more I work, the more I get paid. I think I would drastically cut down my hours with this system. As it is now, even with the current tax structure I always factor in the taxes when deciding how much I want to work. If I knew I would only get 30%, I would choose to just go home instead of working the extra hours. I would be done with my 20 hour days for good, in exchange for 8 hour days, and I would be taking 10 weeks vacation a year.
...Actually, that doesn't sound so bad.
Getting to choose how many hours one works is not typical. Many below you are in the 60-70 hour a week category and have no choice.
My dream scenario would eliminate personal exemptions or distinctions of “filing status”. Also eliminate the mortgage-interest deduction, and the charitable-contributions deduction. Marginal rates could rise, to be revenue-neutral.
I’m willing to pay a higher percentage of income-tax, than persons who earn less. What ceaselessly irks me is how persons who earn considerably more, may nevertheless pay less in taxes (percentage, or absolute amount) than me, not because it’s business-income or investment-income or whatever, but because of their lifestyle choices.
Quote:
Originally Posted by InformedConsent
...Too many ill-informed people whining that the rich don't pay their "fair share" when, clearly, the rich are actually WAY overpaying their share.
While overall your point is eminently sensible, there is a caveat, regarding the source of income. A professional athlete earning $5M in one year, is going to be taxed very differently from an investor with a $100M portfolio, that brought in $5M of long-term capital gains. There’s also a caveat, depending on where one lives. Top marginal income tax rate in California is something like 13%, which is knocking on the federal rate for long-term capital gains. But in some states, that state tax rate will be 0%... makes a huge difference for wealthy people, whereas say “cost of living”, in term of real estate prices, is pretty much irrelevant.
Getting to choose how many hours one works is not typical. Many below you are in the 60-70 hour a week category and have no choice.
That would be a pretty light week for me. Life is full of choices. If you make the right ones, then you get even more choices.
But none of this gets at my point, which is, when you have to work hard for your money, how many people are going to choose to work hard If the government is going to take away 70%?
The government is not going to make more off of these people, they will just get less productivity.
... when you have to work hard for your money, how many people are going to choose to work hard If the government is going to take away 70%?
The government is not going to make more off of these people, they will just get less productivity.
There’s a threshold beyond which additional taxation is counterproductive, in terms of raising additional revenue, even if it supposedly accomplishes laudable social ends. What that threshold happens to be, is of course a matter of opinion – and culture. In ethnically homogeneous small countries – such as those in Scandinavia – with a strongly egalitarian tradition, a higher level of taxation is tolerated. In more variegated and fragmented countries, that tolerance-level will be lower.
If you advocate any scheme where some people pay more than the benefits they actually receive; and other people pay less than what they receive, you will never arrive at anything people will agree is "fair". Never.
What is the fair share? How much income tax should a person pay?
ZERO!
No income based taxing is fair, or productive.
Government does not "earn" anything. Everything government has today, they took it from somebody.
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