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I'm shocked!! Does this mean I shouldn't believe all the statistics that the IRS posts every year as to how many people are paying taxes, the amounts they are paying, what percentages each income bracket pays and what groups ARE NOT PAYING ANY INCOME TAXES?
The IRS lies every year? Or should I believe suggested estimates from people who lied about what Obamacare is going to cost?
The money has been stolen and diverted to the general fund, what about that do you not understand.?
and???
the money from the gas tax, goes directly into the general fund too,,not the DOT fund
facts are facts...'about' 50% of the bottom earners pays nearly nothing in federal income taxes... and of those 50... over 15% pay nothing in either federal income or payroll taxes...infact 10% gets back MORE than they paid in in TOTAL wage taxes.
Yikes, if I understand this correctly 10% of Americans pay no tax of any kind (except sales tax). That is unbelievable. So 47% of Americans pay no income tax and 10% pay no taxes of any kind. And these free loaders are whining about the 1%?
The difference is that one provides a specific potential benefit to the individual paying the tax.
A payroll tax is kind of like funding an insurance policy, with specific benefits that will be ultimately received by the payee. Medicare is the same for individuals no matter how much they contributed to the fund, so lower income folks reap a significant advantage here. Social Security is heavily tilted towards providing a higher percentage of payouts to lower wage contributors.
This retirement benefit calculator shows how this works at normal retirement age:
An individual who averaged $25K a year in income receives a monthly benefit of $860
An individual who averaged $75K a year in income receives a monthly benefit of $1745
So, even though the individual making $75K has contributed 3x the amount to the fund, they only get slightly more than 2x the benefit.
This is an example of why I believe those who add the payroll tax issue to the income tax discussion aren't making legitimate comparisons.
I think you're getting a little too theoretical... if you combined income and payroll tax revenue into one big pot and divvied up benefits according to income when people got old, you could create a system where the effects for taxpayers and beneficiaries would be exactly the same as they are now, with or without the existence of mandatory Social Security and Medicare "insurance premiums." Besides, if the government spending more for your benefit than you pay in taxes makes you a non-taxpayer, then it seems impossible that anyone with a below-average income will ever "pay taxes" by that definition.
Last edited by postingMan; 10-12-2011 at 01:52 PM..
I'm shocked!! Does this mean I shouldn't believe all the statistics that the IRS posts every year as to how many people are paying taxes, the amounts they are paying, what percentages each income bracket pays and what groups ARE NOT PAYING ANY INCOME TAXES?
The IRS lies every year? Or should I believe suggested estimates from people who lied about what Obamacare is going to cost?
I would dispute the CBO's numbers. Unemployment is at 9+% that tells me any of these long term unemployed are actually paying nothing and getting a fat return of likely more than they paid in while working.
Lol, of course that's what I wrote. Additionally these folks are receiving wealth transfer ( welfare) that offsets any sales tax they may pay.
I'm sure you think this arrangement is just swell, most sane people disagree.
That is what you wrote (at first), but the whole post was kind of like, "There aren't any plants in this room except for those plants in the corner. It makes me mad that there aren't any plants in this room."
Last edited by postingMan; 10-12-2011 at 02:12 PM..
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