Tax the rich, tax the rich! We can have everything if we just tax the rich. One question: how do we define
rich? Would the top ten percent of income earners be considered the rich? The top ten percent already pay 71% of all Federal taxes despite only earning approximately 39% of all pre-tax income. The top one percent could certainly be considered rich, let’s get them to pay! The fact is that they already do, 40% of all Federal tax dollars come from the top one percent of income earners.How much more can they reasonably be expected to give? The wealthy constantly seek out ways to shelter income from taxation. Capital gains, dividends and other targeted deductions and credits allow some taxes to be avoided. One way of having the “rich” pay more taxes is by eliminating these tax breaks. Guess what, some of the poor and many of the middle class take advantage of these deductions and credits as well. If these items are eliminated as a way of “taxing the rich” the poor and middle class earners who utilized them will see a tax increase as well. So much for taxing the rich.
Progressiveness
There was so much talk on the campaign trail about redistributing wealth. Some were saying that we should model ourselves after many of the European nations in regards to the way they handle the haves and have-nots. I recently came across a column by Jonah Goldberg that talked about that very thing. It seems that we already redistribute more wealth than European countries like France and Sweden do. The article states that the bottom 40% of income earners receive more from the Federal Government than they pay in taxes, isn’t that spreading the wealth?
Many people have been calling for tax reform or simplification for decades. There have been proponents of flat-tax, value-added tax (VAT), national sales tax, fair tax, this that and the other tax. There is one big flaw in all of this talk, it doesn’t greatly alter the need for revenue, it just changes how it’s collected and who pays it. Sure some plans call for the elimination of the IRS bureaucracy, but will the Government really eliminate all of those jobs or just shift them elsewhere? And what about all of the businesses that are built around the tax code? It’s not as easy as it is made to sound.
New Tax Form:
- What did you earn?
- Send it in.
Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.
-Winston Churchill
Article Author:
Richard WarrenRichard has written 109 articles for us.
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Bravo!
Well said, Richard!
I’m do not more about taxes, thank for this info
Thanks for the scope and depth of knowledge!
With the economy being as difficult as it currently is, higher taxes should be considered. When the GDP begins to expand at a decent pace, then lower taxes can be an option.
2009 Taxes’s last blog post: 5 IRS Identity Theft Tips
“With the economy being as difficult as it currently is, higher taxes should be considered. When the GDP begins to expand at a decent pace, then lower taxes can be an option.”
In a recessionary environment higher taxes would be the absolute worst thing to do. For the economy to expand and recover from this mess people need to spend money again, not pay more taxes. One of the primary causes of the Great Depression was Herbert Hoover raising taxes. Any economist will tell you that now would be the absolute worst time to raise taxes. Your statement is exactly the opposite of what should be done, even the Government understands that and is, appropriately, enacting tax cuts.