"RD Sandman" wrote in message
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"Scout" wrote in
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"RD Sandman" wrote in message
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Gray Ghost wrote in
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RD Sandman wrote in
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"Scout" wrote in
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"John Smith" wrote in message
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On 5/24/2011 12:21 PM, RD Sandman wrote:
John wrote in
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On 5/24/2011 11:40 AM, RD Sandman wrote:
John wrote in
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On 5/24/2011 10:47 AM, gfn wrote:
...
Sure it is. It gives a clear, concise and true picture of
who pays the federal income tax burden in this country. If
you want to talk about all taxes and all revenue that goes
to the government then your right. I know of no place that
compiles that data. ...
OK. Then, please cut and paste the relevant parts here, I
need them pointed out to me.
If you can't understand the date presented at that site, you
have no hope of understanding any data presented to you.
Which explains some of your ideas.....
If it is so simple, as you pretend, it would be no problem ...
you are attempting a circular argument ...

Just post something which proves your point ... if you can,
from the site you are claiming explains it openly ... DUH!
I didn't make that claim, however, here is the data:

2008

Top 1% AGI$380,354 Percentage 38.02
Top 5% AGI$159,619 Percentage 58.72
Top 10% AGI$113,799 Percentage 69.94
Top 25% AGI$ 67,280 Percentage 86.34
Top 50% AGI$ 33,048 Percentage 97.30
Bottom 50% AGI$ 33,048 Percentage 2.70

2007

Top 1% AGI$410,096 Percentage 40.42
Top 5% AGI$160,041 Percentage 60.63
Top 10% AGI$113,018 Percentage 71.22
Top 25% AGI$ 66,532 Percentage 86.59
Top 50% AGI$ 32,879 Percentage 97.11
Bottom 50% AGI$ 32,879 Percentage 2.89

Here is the site:

http://ntu.org/tax-basics/who-pays-income-taxes.html

The Virginian-Pilot
© May 15, 2011
By Don Tabor

Who really pays the baker's taxes? The baker may write the
check, but he does not bear the cost, and in that paradox lies
the cause of much of the bitter partisanship and polarization
that poisons our political process. But to understand that
problem, we must consider how taxes are applied to the
production of goods and services.

So, how does the loaf of bread the baker sells come to market?

A farmer grew and harvested wheat for sale to the miller to be
made into flour for the baker. The farmer paid income taxes
based on his profit from the sale and property tax on his farm
and equipment. Those taxes were, from his point of view, just
another cost of doing business in the course of earning his
living, no different from fuel for his tractor or wages and
taxes for employees.

Since every other farmer had roughly the same expenses and
taxes, the price they charge the miller must cover their
expenses and taxes, plus their after-tax disposable income and
savings. Otherwise, there would be no point in growing wheat.
All of these costs and taxes were passed on to the miller,
embedded in the price of wheat.

Likewise, when the miller sold the flour ground from the wheat
to the baker, his taxes, plus the income and Social Security
taxes he withheld from his employees, plus the farmer's taxes,
were all passed on to the baker.

The baker then sold his bread made from the flour, carrying with
it his own taxes plus those of his employees, plus all those
previous taxes from the farmer, miller and their employees,
hidden in the price of that loaf of bread. The buyer and his
family ate the bread, and, having done so, could not sell it to
anyone else and pass the taxes along, as the baker and everyone
else before had done.

So, it is the consumer who paid the baker's taxes, along with
the farmer's taxes, the miller's taxes and the taxes they
withheld from all of their employees. From bread to automobiles
to brain surgery, the price of everything we buy carries in it
the hidden taxes of everyone who contributed to the production
of that product or service to the tune of, on average, 23 cents
of every dollar we spend for federal taxes alone.

Our complex, pervasive and expensive tax code is, in reality, a
scheme to draft businesses and individuals as unpaid and
unknowing tax collectors to gather a hidden sales tax and to
keep voters from realizing who really bears the burden of those
high taxes.

There is no way around this central reality that all income and
business taxes are a deception and that all taxes are eventually
paid by the consumer, hidden in the price of goods and services.
It doesn't matter what tax rate is applied to which tax bracket,
or what deductions you receive. These devices change only the
degree to which you are a tax collector, but the burden taxes
place on your life depends solely on what you spend.

Paying this hidden consumption tax is unavoidable, but the
illusion of income-based taxing does a great deal of harm.
First, it distorts our economic decisions. Goods and services
that are provided by highly taxed individuals and companies,
like health care, are artificially more expensive than
necessary, while raw materials and natural resources are
underpriced, leading to overconsumption and waste.

But even worse, these hidden taxes distort the political
process, encouraging government overspending by politicians who
exploit the mistaken belief of many voters that government
spending can be paid for solely by taxing corporations or the
"rich." All of the exploitation of envy and demagoguery - which
brings so much ill will to our politics and drives wedges
between Americans who would be better served by mutual respect
and compassion - is ultimately the meaningless exploitation of a
lie.

Our income tax system, with its escalating marginal rates,
appears progressive, but the reality is extremely regressive.
Currently, the lower income 45 percent of wage earners may pay
no income tax directly, but in reality, with their FICA taxes
added to the hidden embedded tax, their true federal tax burden
is almost 30 percent of their meager income.

Voters might well choose differently were they aware that
government spending is ultimately paid for by everyone, through
an invisible sales tax disguised as a high cost of living.

Guest columnist Don Tabor of Chesapeake is a grandfather,
Libertarian activist and proprietor of TidewaterLiberty.com. He
is a dentist in Norfolk and Hampton.

A flat tax, and NO OTHER TAXES! PERIOD!

Agreed. A flat tax. Mr A buys a product he pays the same tax as
Mr. B.

Mr. A pays the same rate of taxes on his income that Mr. B does.

No exceptions, no exclusions, except those which apply to ALL.

If you're going to exempt Mr. A housing, food, medical, then Mr B
gets the exact same exemptions.

Otherwise, it's not a flat tax.




And it won't fix the problem he is whining about....which is the
rich not paying a hundred times what the poor do.


And truthfully you never will. It is childish whining to think so.
The best you can hope for is that everyone pays the same percentage
without a plethora of deductions and weasel outs.

Which is what my flat tax proposal does.

AFter, of course, you tell me exactly how much the guv needs and
why.

GG, somehow I doubt that decision is up to you.

Actually, I think if we fixed the income the federal government had to
work with by eliminating their power to impose or increase taxes, I
bet the rest would, over time, resolve itself.

Somebody has to be able to adjust tax rates... If not Congress then who?

Decrease, by Congress.

Increase, by vote during a general election.


As law makers have to
live within their means then priorities would be required and those
items which were luxuries or not required would keep getting pushed
further and further towards the short end of the stick.

In a dream world. Unfortunately, in this one, what one set sees and
luxuries, the other side sees as entitlements.

Yep, I never said they would be eliminated, but priorities BOTH sides can
agree on would slowly get the bulk of the available resources.

If we, as a
people, decide that the government simply doesn't have the funds to
provide the necessary services, then we, as a people, can decide to
raise our taxes to provide more funding so such necessary services can
exist at a level we desire.

Look at the hullabaloo over modifying SS and Medicare and tell me with a
straight face that the people will vote for money to provide necessary
services and will not vote for money that aren't.

Some would. A lot would not.

Would you vote to raise taxes for unneeded services?

Particularly when that
opinion of what is on what side of the line is all over the place.

There is that.

We are, after all, the ones paying for it all, so we should have a
direct say in how much we will pay.

Yep, but look at the above and you can see why a direct democracy won't
work.

Oh, I don't know. If you could earmark your check for the specific programs
you felt the money should go to.....and undecided funds would be allocated
by Congress to plug any holes.....Hmmm... possible.