The_Kitchen_Guy
Silver Member
- 12,458
In honor of tax day,
WHO ACTUALLY PAYS THE TAXES?
In figures for tax year 2003, as released by the IRS in Fall of October, 2005, we see this pattern:
The top 50% of wage earners must be the millionaires, right? Wrong. More like "thousandaires." The top 50% were those individuals or couples filing jointly who earned $29,019 and up in 2003. If you're making over $30,000 per year, you are in the top 50% of wage earners and are considered "rich" in the discussions of making the rich pay their fair share of taxes.
Further broken down, the top taxpayers are:
Before you get all huffy and tell me that those percentages don't add up - yes they do. Remember, the top 50% of tax payers includes the to 25%, 5% and 1%.
The bottom 50% of wage earners? They pay 3.46% of the tax burden - consider that for a moment - the top 1% pays over ten times the amount of taxes that the bottom 50% of wage earners pay.
I'm not making this up - these figures are published by the IRS annually and change very little in percentages.
If you really work hard and go over $100,000 in income, then you get smashed with another reward for hard work - the alternative minimum tax. It was enacted in 1969 to ensnare 155 wealthy Americans who were paying little or no taxes. Since it was not indexed for inflation, it catches more and more Americans every year who are shocked to learn that their standard deductions are no longer valid. Not very fair if you consider what $100,000 was in 1969 compared to now.
How does our tax system work? Read the story of http://www.victorboc.com/radio/PostRestaurantTaxStory.htm as written by http://www.victorboc.com/radio/PostRestaurantTaxStory.htm and read on his http://www.victorboc.com/radio/indexHome.htm.
WHO ACTUALLY PAYS THE TAXES?
In figures for tax year 2003, as released by the IRS in Fall of October, 2005, we see this pattern:
- The bottom 50% of wage earners pay 3.46% of the federal burden.
- The top 50% pay 96.54% of the federal tax burden.
The top 50% of wage earners must be the millionaires, right? Wrong. More like "thousandaires." The top 50% were those individuals or couples filing jointly who earned $29,019 and up in 2003. If you're making over $30,000 per year, you are in the top 50% of wage earners and are considered "rich" in the discussions of making the rich pay their fair share of taxes.
Further broken down, the top taxpayers are:
- The top 1% of wage earners pay over a third, 34.27% of all income taxes. (They earn $295,500 and up.)
- The top 5% pay 54.36% of all income taxes while earning 31.18% of all the income.
- The top 25% pay 83.88% while earning 64.86% of all the income meaning...
- The top 50% of wage earners pay 96.54% of income taxes collected while earning 86.0 of all the income.
Before you get all huffy and tell me that those percentages don't add up - yes they do. Remember, the top 50% of tax payers includes the to 25%, 5% and 1%.
The bottom 50% of wage earners? They pay 3.46% of the tax burden - consider that for a moment - the top 1% pays over ten times the amount of taxes that the bottom 50% of wage earners pay.
I'm not making this up - these figures are published by the IRS annually and change very little in percentages.
If you really work hard and go over $100,000 in income, then you get smashed with another reward for hard work - the alternative minimum tax. It was enacted in 1969 to ensnare 155 wealthy Americans who were paying little or no taxes. Since it was not indexed for inflation, it catches more and more Americans every year who are shocked to learn that their standard deductions are no longer valid. Not very fair if you consider what $100,000 was in 1969 compared to now.
How does our tax system work? Read the story of http://www.victorboc.com/radio/PostRestaurantTaxStory.htm as written by http://www.victorboc.com/radio/PostRestaurantTaxStory.htm and read on his http://www.victorboc.com/radio/indexHome.htm.