Tax question

mjmjr25

went home to be a family man
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Yeah, that's not how a progressive tax system works. Seriously... how do people who've been paying taxes for 20-30 years not understand this shit?

The American tax system is needlessly obtuse and complicated to keep tax filing businesses (TurboTax, accountants, etc.) flush and to enable the aforementioned rich to continue not paying their fair share. I would take a flat tax rate but we all know it would just end up with the rich having endless loopholes to avoid it and the middle/upper-middle class would continue getting fucked.
Forest for the trees.

Okay economics class, the (not-so-obvious, apparently, inferred minutia): 12% for first $83,550, 22% for dollars $83, 551 to $340,100. We all on same page?

Point is no increase for over 260K in income growth, but significant 10% jump for lower middle class as they start to you know, pay off a mortgage or put kids through college. Then no increase for 150K-300K for the folks who could handle it. Then when they can handle a little more it's a 2% bump. If that makes sense to someone i'd love to hear it. Seriously.
 

Lagduf

2>X
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Time to abolish the federal income tax. It will have the added benefit of less money for the Feds to bomb brown people in to the freedom age.
 

100proof

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Your point still doesn't work. Obviously that 10% jump sucks but for the people on the lower end of that number (who would theoretically be hurt by it most), it makes very little difference. If you make $100k, your effective tax rate is still under 15%. And moving to a flat tax rate wouldn't help those people unless that number is lower than what they're currently paying in payroll taxes.

Edit: I do agree with your basic premise that the middle class gets punished far more than any other group but that's America for you: politicians never shut up about the middle class because they're the predominant voting bloc but they take every opportunity to redistribute their wealth to military subcontractors and "job creators" who pay jackshit and just endlessly horde it and pay off politicians to maintain the status quo. Then they use social issues to keep us arguing with each other over petty shit.
 
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mjmjr25

went home to be a family man
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My premise (obviously not mine, but one i've heard and agree with more than any other i've heard) - with the guesstimated number of ~28% is a flat tax across the board, one time, on everything purchased new. You buy a cand bar for $1--> $1.28. You buy a car for 10K --> $12,800.

No tax on used items. No wheelage tax, no tourist tax, no dining tax, no school activity tax, no used car tax, no home sale tax, no tax on unemployment benefits, no tax no tax no tax etc. One tax at point of original purchase and the entire federal / state / county get their cut of that and divvy out as needed to schools, DoT's, etc No IRS, no tax codes to cheat or cleverly workaround.

That won't happen in our lifetimes, probably, but we should socialize the idea. We have complicated it possibly beyond repair. We've all seen the videos that show "true tax as percentage of income" and someone making 30K a year pays far more a percentage of their income to taxes than someone making 300K; the equity and fairness is a myth. With our complicated tax code we only make the disparity greater with those who can afford personal accountants and tax lawyers to trim their share down even more.
 

wyo

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Property tax is out of control. Costs more than rent used to.
 

sirlynxalot

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Don't forget to report the 10 bucks of interest income you made from your bank savings account this year.
 

@M

Vanessa's Drinking Buddy,
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Don't forget to report the 10 bucks of interest income you made from your bank savings account this year.
I always claim my checking/savings account interest. That's usually the next step after putting in your W2s in tax preparation software programs.
 

neo_mao

Been There., Done That., It Was Shit.,
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Edit - I think M is trolling :p
 
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@M

Vanessa's Drinking Buddy,
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Moe, if I was trolling, I'd be living under a bridge demanding tolls from passing goats, and I'd definitely have to file those monies under Schedule C as self employment (and I'd claim a deduction for bridge maintenance materials and labor).
 

Heinz

Parteizeit
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Moe, if I was trolling, I'd be living under a bridge demanding tolls from passing goats, and I'd definitely have to file those monies under Schedule C as self employment (and I'd claim a deduction for bridge maintenance materials and labor).
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