Curious about why people owe taxes

that's it - BADRAP FOR PRESIDENT! you shall all pay your taxes or rosie will come to collect them!

 
 
I'd kick her in the "You know whats" she would like to have, but doesn't..........[]

We had to pay freaking $1800!!!!!!!!!  Thank God we have a savings acount.  We are not rich. 

I would like to know exactly what federal services my $1800 (this is, of course on TOP of what I already have paid in income tax) have bought me.  Oh, that's right--a lame duck administration and a pitiful Congress who will only raise taxes more. 

Oh, and I probably bought some new clothes and maybe a nice night out for daughter of a friend who is getting welfare checks by telling the goverment that she is single and living alone with her two children (she is actually supporting her two children, their dead beat LAZY father who REFUSES to work, her love of shopping and both of their 1 pack a day smoking habits).  Oh yeah, I forgot, those checks are also helping to support her HORSE, yes, that's right-a horse.  A horse that she BOUGHT while she was on welfare, so it's not like she just suddenly fell on hard times. 

I guess some of that money is probably going to that woman I used to work with who was getting paid under the table and using the extra cash from her welfare checks to remodel her house--you know, knocking out walls to make rooms larger, adding hardwood floors--oh, and I can't forget the RIDING LESSONS she was buying for her kid, at least 2 a week.

If I sound AWEFULLY bitter, it's probably because I am.  That money was earmarked for Jack's trip down to Purdue to have his leg treated and whatever he didn't use was for my rescued off the track standardbred, Snafu, who has some soundness issues (very looonnnggg saga) that our vet has said should be diaignosed by specialists at MSU.  Even though I've had Snafu longer, he is sound enough to have a good life, he just can't be in any kind of work right now.  Jack, however, has been on crate rest for a month now, and I fear for his sanity if he has to stay in there much longer.  Now we are going to have to borrow that money (something that we were going to do everything to try and avoid) to make sure the expences are covered.

I'm sorry for the rant, but I take things like this very personally. []

i agree with badrap. the fed should institute a flat rate tax. that would even out the playing field and make sure that the rich fat cats are paying their fair share.

i also think our state should do away with income tax and raise the sales tax. that way the people visting our state and using our roads and gov't funded services would help pay for them, and the people who are currently leaching off the system would be giving some back as well.

i will disagree with badrap on one point. the way our system is running now, i see taxation as a penalty. it is a penalty for trying to live unassisted and being a hardworking person. if i wanted to be a dead beat lay about, the gov't would fund me, give me a place to live, and food to eat. if i were among the wealthiest 5-10% of the population, i could afford to hire the shiftiest tax person available to make sure i paid the bare minimum the system allows. as it stands, the people caught between those two ends of the spectrum bear the brunt of the tax burden in this country. i am not saying the wealthy should pay a hire or lower percentage than me. i think they should have to pay the same percentage as me. the person getting gov't assistance also should not ever get a refund of any kind. why? they havent paid into the system. that is like winning the lottery and not having to buy a ticket.

sillysally i feel your pain. my office is about 2 blocks away from section 8 housing. it is nice to see all these able-bodied men and women with loads of free time on their hands, cars with 24" rims, gold chains, and designer clothes. i just wish once, one of them would come by and thank me (and every other tax paying person) for allowing them to live such a care free lifestyle.

ORIGINAL: badrap
billy- i'm pretty sure you're not kidding... i don't think the rich pay enough,

 
No, I am certainly not kidding.  And with just a little bit of research, instead of buying into what the liberal media is feeding you, I think you will find yourself convinced that the rich pay plenty of taxes.  I forget the exact numbers but the upper 5% of income earners pay about 50% of the total taxes taken in.

my point really is that nobody seems to want to pay enough into the pot to keep some things going! 

 
And my point is there should be A LOT less in the pot.  The government should provide for the common defense and little else.
 
But again, we are getting off topic and I apologize for that.  I just get a bit miffed when someone suggests the rich don't pay enough taxes mostly because it is a position that is so easily refuted.

No, I am certainly not kidding.  And with just a little bit of research, instead of buying into what the liberal media is feeding you, I think you will find yourself convinced that the rich pay plenty of taxes.  I forget the exact numbers but the upper 5% of income earners pay about 50% of the total taxes taken in.

but what percentage of their income do they pay in? if the upper 5% are making 10miliion per year, and the average worker is making 30K per year. it stands to reason the wealthy would contribute more pure dollars, but if the average guy is paying in 30% of his income and the wealthy guy is paying in 15% of his, that still isnt fair.

ORIGINAL: cyclefiend2000
but what percentage of their income do they pay in? if the upper 5% are making 10miliion per year, and the average worker is making 30K per year. it stands to reason the wealthy would contribute more pure dollars, but if the average guy is paying in 30% of his income and the wealthy guy is paying in 15% of his, that still isnt fair.

 
The wealthy do indeed pay a small percentage of their income in taxes than do us poor folk, but they also pay a smaller percentage of their income toward things like house payments, car payments, health care, food and on and on and on, than we do.  So?  Using your logic, should we force the wealthy to pay higher car payments in the interest of "fairness?"

what car a person chooses to drive and pay for doesnt affect the populace of the country. house payments are largely a personal choice. i could live in a less expensive house and have a smaller percentage of my pay go toward housing costs.

taxes i have virtually no say over. the government sets those rules, and i have not once gotten a phone call, letter, or otherwise asking me personally whether i thought raising taxes this year was a good idea. for things, like taxes, i think there should be a more fair system of assessing what a person pays. so yes, i think bill gates should pay the exact same percentage as me in taxes each year.

i think your logic is flawed.

There is more of a chance that your money paid for an hours worth of secret service protection for one of Our Royalty.

Or even a day's fill up of all of the brand new black SUV's they use to transport Our Royalty.

Oh, and I probably bought some new clothes and maybe a nice night out for daughter of a friend who is getting welfare checks by telling the goverment that she is single and living alone with her two children (she is actually supporting her two children, their dead beat LAZY father who REFUSES to work, her love of shopping and both of their 1 pack a day smoking habits).  Oh yeah, I forgot, those checks are also helping to support her HORSE, yes, that's right-a horse.  A horse that she BOUGHT while she was on welfare, so it's not like she just suddenly fell on hard times. 

I guess some of that money is probably going to that woman I used to work with who was getting paid under the table and using the extra cash from her welfare checks to remodel her house--you know, knocking out walls to make rooms larger, adding hardwood floors--oh, and I can't forget the RIDING LESSONS she was buying for her kid, at least 2 a week.

Oh a bandwagon I can join! Yeah!
 
I did taxes for 2 years and the things I could tell you! It bites but there is nothing we can really do unless you get goverment to stop giving money away to people who have children, work very little and give nothing back. The earned income credit policy is being abused and we are paying for it. If some young lady has 2kids and makes less than 20k a year she is going to get a good cash payout from the goverment for this credit. And if she has 3 or 4, they usually split the kids between her and another family member or SO and then they BOTH get money back. This frustrates me to no end. I have seen a family of 6, spliting kids and getting back as much at 8k between them. Oh and lets not forget the goverment services they get as well...........GRRRRRRRRRR.
 
Yet I, who works 2 jobs, has a husband who is disabled and tries to make a decent life can get nothing. Basically we have no children so we get no extra
's. In fact at one point when I was laid off for 4 months we could not even quailify for food stamps. I made to much in unemployment!
 
The goverment needs to overhaul the Earned income credit big time, ohhh and most of those that get it refer to it as the "UNearned income credit"..imagine that.
 
Dawn
 

ORIGINAL: cyclefiend2000
so yes, i think bill gates should pay the exact same percentage as me in taxes each year.

 
But why, Brad, is the percentage of income paid a better determination than percentage of total tax revenue paid by income class?  I looked it up quickly.  Don't know the validity of the source, but according to the source, the upper 5% of income earners pay 41% of total tax revenue.  I submit THAT isn't fair.  Now, which of us gets to determine fair?  []

maybe it isnt fair that the distribution of wealth in this country is so one sided. []

i just looked at my last pay stub. i am contributing roughly 20% of each paycheck to uncle sam. add to that uncle sam tells me each april 20% isnt enough and they want a little more. if bill gates and warren buffet are paying 20% of their annual income to uncle sam, then we can claim fairness to all. until that point, i am being unduly taxed.

it sucks that the top 5% of income earners make so much that 10-15% of their salary contributes 41% to the total taxes paid to the government. now if bill gates wants to give me $1 million each year (of his estimated $7.8 billion per year) as some kind of pay back, i want mind giving 20% of it to uncle sam.

$7.8 billion.... i realize that he has become all philanthropic of late and started donating money to various charieties, but he makes over 200,000 times what i make each year and i am supposed to feel sorry for him or that he is being treated unfairly? surely you jest!

as of july 2006 there is an estimated 298,444,215 people living in the US. so roughly 15,000,000 people are in the top 5% of the population.so 15,000,000 people earn so much more than the average joe that their combined taxable income contributes 41% of the total taxes taken by the government. that is after they have taken advantage of every underhanded, shady, barely legal tax credit known to the wealthiest tax lawyers.

edit: i guess if i could come up with a product as unfailing and unfrustrating as windows i could potentially be making 7.8 billion as well. [&:]

You forgot unmonopolised

edit: i guess if i could come up with a product as unfailing and unfrustrating as windows i could potentially be making 7.8 billion as well. [&:]

touche! []

$7.8 billion.... i realize that he has become all philanthropic of late and started donating money to various charieties,

 
Bradley, don't forget that he can now deduct all this charitable giving, too. [8|]

Hre is the updated tax table from the IRS website.....I still don't see that people who make more money pay less, according to this tax table, they actually pay more.
 
 
[linkhttp://www.irs.gov/formspubs/article/0,,id=164272,00.html]http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/article/0,,id=164272,00.html[/link]