Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
You just highlighted the problem, do you have any issue with a tax rate of 15% for billionaires. How they do it is beside the point the fact is they pay a very low rate. Why the concern for Bezos.
I don't. They employ many tens of thousands of people often times, and ultimately pay a much higher effective rate than 15% once you talk about property taxes, sales taxes, etc. All of the taxes go into the pot. Put differently, they--whether directly or indirectly--contribute more to the federal tax bucket than the collective of folks complaining about things. Without them, the system would fail.
Let's remember that the top 1% in the US pay 40% of all federal income taxes, so it's not like they aren't paying their "fair share." And the top 10% account for almost 80% of all federal income taxes. Source: https://www.heritage.org/taxes/comme...income%20taxes.
It is more complicated than that.
You may think Bezos does not need more police protection than we do. However, if there is no police, Amazon will be looted every day, which certainly has an impact on his wealth. Not to mention the legal system in the US guaranteed the prosperity of such corporations.
Many Amazon employees received education in public schools. If there is no government funding, it would be difficult to find properly educated workers.
All countries make rich people pay more (in theory) for good reasons.
Some folks, even here, are catching the drift where the United States is heading -->
Oligarchy
Quote:
French economist Thomas Piketty states in his 2013 book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, that "the risk of a drift towards oligarchy is real and gives little reason for optimism about where the United States is headed."[24]
Apparently they make the rules.
----------------------------
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos paid no income tax in 2007 and 2011. Tesla founder Elon Musk’s income tax bill came to zero in 2018. And financier George Soros went three straight years without paying federal income tax, according to a report out Tuesday from the nonprofit investigative journalism organization ProPublica.
Overall, the richest 25 Americans pay less in tax — an average of 15.8% of adjusted gross income — than many ordinary workers do, once you include taxes for Social Security and Medicare, ProPublica found.
Tax Data Show Richest 1 Percent Took a Hit in 2008, But Income Remained Highly Concentrated at the Top
Recent Gains of Bottom 90 Percent Wiped Out
An analysis of recently released IRS data on pre-tax income by economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez [1] shows that:
The average income of the top 1 percent of households fell by 20 percent from 2007 to 2008, after adjusting for inflation, wiping out almost half of the gains this group achieved between 2002 and 2007 (see Figure 1).
The average income of the bottom 90 percent of households fell 7 percent from 2007 to 2008, in inflation-adjusted dollars, the largest one-year drop for this group since 1938. The loss in 2008 more than wiped out the increase from 2002 to 2007, leaving the average income for the bottom 90 percent of households at its lowest level since 1996.
Income remained highly concentrated, with the top 1 percent of households receiving 21 percent of total income, which is somewhat below recent peaks but still among the highest percentages since the late 1920s.
Why should "low income" people pay a lower rate than anyone else?
Why should any American pay a higher rate than anyone else?
I care that I pay a higher rate than Bezos....
But the difference between you and I is that I see the acceptable solution to that being ME paying LESS...
Not HIM paying MORE.
The issue is fairness, even a slight tax increase for those in the bottom brackets means some rather large sacrifices, raising the top bracket from 37% to 39% is probably unnoticeable.
The issue is fairness and many wealthy are able to manipulate the system and lobby for changes. People making billions taxed at these low rates indicates a problem with the system.
I don't. They employ many tens of thousands of people often times, and ultimately pay a much higher effective rate than 15% once you talk about property taxes, sales taxes, etc. All of the taxes go into the pot. Put differently, they--whether directly or indirectly--contribute more to the federal tax bucket than the collective of folks complaining about things. Without them, the system would fail.
Let's remember that the top 1% in the US pay 40% of all federal income taxes, so it's not like they aren't paying their "fair share." And the top 10% account for almost 80% of all federal income taxes. Source: https://www.heritage.org/taxes/comme...income%20taxes.
I would hope that the wealthy pay a larger share of gross income tax since they have a large percentage of earnings.
The issue is fairness, even a slight tax increase for those in the bottom brackets means some rather large sacrifices, raising the top bracket from 37% to 39% is probably unnoticeable.
The issue is fairness and many wealthy are able to manipulate the system and lobby for changes. People making billions taxed at these low rates indicates a problem with the system.
Average citizens only get what they want if wealthy Americans & business-oriented interest groups also want it. When a policy favored by the majority of the American public is implemented, it is usually because the economic elites did not oppose it.
Averaging is misleading
Ask what per cent of total tax received by the government, do they pay?
The petro industry is the one who actually funds the government, providing the largest portion of tax collected.
How about those who pay zero tax, the number is liquid but 47% is an estimate of people receiving benefits and pay zero tax. time for them to contribute.
Biden and states are actually taxing these people with higher consumer costs and gasoline tax etc. Somehow those taxes hidden by slimeball politicians, never get counted as a contribution.
Grow the IRS and screw the people with penalties. We need another rogue IRS office as we had under obamabiden
biden says he has a way to pay for everything.... he does.. YOU!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Average citizens only get what they want if wealthy Americans & business-oriented interest groups also want it. When a policy favored by the majority of the American public is implemented, it is usually because the economic elites did not oppose it.