<p>And if taxes are too high in the US, where can americans move so they can pay lower taxes. There must be so many choices because taxes are so high in the US.</p>
<p>If we continue to want to pay more for healthcare than any other first world country, getting to Ireland’s tax level, and cutting spending a little over time would get us in better financial shape. Or we could move to Mexico.</p>
<p>OK so why doesn’t the president propose tax increase AND spending cuts in the ratio of 1 to 2 or 3? Why does he keep talking about taxes only? There’s nothing new there, not even that much money. We don’t need NYT to tell us we pay less tax than 1980’s. That’s when Reagan joked how he was paying at 90%. Should we be shocked/outraged that we pay less than 90%, the rate that Reagan ran his campaign on and won the election? I don’t think he will have trouble increasing tax if combined with substantial cuts. But he chooses to hammer on taxing the rich. It is disengenuous to limit/emphasize the conversation on revenue side. From what I read you can tax the rich 100% and deficit will continue to rise unless you tackle the spending.</p>
<p>Singapore has government supported health care. And the cost of healthcare is based on income, wealth or both. That is a no-no. The place only has 13 hospitals or so. Singapore restricts some individual freedoms. That is such a no-no. And it is hard for people who move to Singapore to get the cheap healthcare. Maybe even impossible?</p>
<p>"How does our tax burden compare to our past? Who really received the tax cuts?</p>
<p>Turns out the poor have been screwed over."</p>
<p>The chart you show says, “At lower income levels, however, much of the savings was offset by increases in federal payroll taxes, state sales taxes and local property taxes.”</p>
<p>What is striking is that the federal income tax for that group has declined from 2.3% to -3.6%. You didn’t mention that. I don’t consider that as the poor getting screwed over. Apparently more money should be given to people in that income group from the federal government to make up for states and localities raising taxes?</p>
<p>Not everybody in the 0-25K income bracket is poor, as you know, dstark. Obviously, that is just the income claimed on tax returns. I suspect some of my family members are in that income bracket some years, though they are fairly well to do.</p>
<p>One thing that caught my eye was that Americans making over 350K are paying overall taxes at a 42% tax rate. Sure, it’s lower than the 49% paid in 1980, but…wow.</p>
<p>Singapore had private healthcare and now has public healthcare. Costs for both systems were about 3% of GDP. So apparently the system didn’t matter that much. Singapore focuses on a healthy population and on providing a health supply of medical services to keep costs down. I’ve used the healthcare system as have my relatives (obviously).</p>
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<p>Well, I can get along without chewing gum and vandalizing cars.</p>
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<p>You can get residency in most countries if you bring in enough money. I don’t know what the amount is in the US. But I think that it was maybe $750K and maybe the promise to start a business that employes people.</p>
<p>Iglooo, it is quite surprising, isn’t it? We’re going to raise taxes, pretend we are cutting spending (on wars we were already winding down anyways, and decrease the amount of increase we had planned on and call it debt reduction), and hey, now we’re going to add a bunch more stimulus spending too. </p>
<p>I swear, sometimes this reminds me of the Charlton Heston movie, “The Ten Commandments,” when he leaves the group briefly on his trip to find God…and the followers start partying, going nuts and melting all their gold together to build a golden lamb. For some reason, it seems so similar.</p>
<p>Busdriver11, come on…we live in the United States.</p>
<p>There are many taxes here. When you look at all the taxes, the poor are screwed and those at the top have done extremely well. </p>
<p>Those at the top make more compared to other people and have seen their taxes drop as a percentage of that income.</p>
<p>We are going to talk about people who make more than 0 to 25,000. Do you want to go there. I will go there. How much more do they make? Tell me.</p>
<p>I can say something. Most of the big wealth has never been taxed. Not
once. Warren Buffett’s wealth. Most of it has never been declared as income. Never been taxed. But he is still worth how many billions? Bill Gates…how much tax has he paid on his net worth? Ellison of Oracle. How much has he paid? These hedge fund guys who make hundreds of millions a year. What is their tax rate? </p>
<p>Local, state, federal government add the the costs up. In many areas,
the cost of all government is 40 percent of gdp. That share of gdp will go lower as the economy improves.</p>
<p>Ronald Reagan wanted to get the poor off the income tax rolls. He cut
the poor’s income taxes and then he screwed them by raising SS taxes. That increase in SS taxes did not go to SS. That increase partially paid for the income tax cuts for the wealthy. And now people are talking about cutting SS after those taxes have been raised? </p>
<p>The working poor pay more in taxes and you get less benefits. That is a great deal. Lol I prefer being on the wealthier side myself. I think the wealthy side got a much better deal. :)</p>
<p>The Reagan video…you can start watching around the 5 minute mark. I voted for Reagan both times. He still screwed the working poor.</p>
<p>If you are fortunate enough to have huge stock gains, then you can borrow using your stock as collateral, and never have to pay taxes on the stock gains. Of course you are taking a huge risk in that you can face some severe financial problems if the value of your stock plummets - the risk that leveraged players take.</p>
<p>Ask John McAfee how that worked out. If you can find him.</p>
<p>I voted against Reagan both times myself. My point was why is NYT running the article now? Do you seriuosly believe tax increase is the main issue? It is a good PR, helping the helpless poor taking from big bad rich. If he wants to be genuine, he should suggest spending cuts in conjunction with the tax increase. The last thing we need NYT to do is tilting the conversation further to tax side.</p>
<p>BCEagle, don’t you still have to pay tax on gains when you sell it eventually?</p>
<p>Sounds like for all his wealth, McAfee is a little crazy. Didn’t seem to help him much.</p>
<p>"We are going to talk about people who make more than 0 to 25,000. Do you want to go there. I will go there. How much more do they make? Tell me.</p>
<p>I can say something. Most of the big wealth has never been taxed. Not
once. Warren Buffett’s wealth. Most of it has never been declared as income. Never been taxed."</p>
<p>The point I was trying to make is that you were generalizing about income groups in those graphs. And it goes towards both ends. There are a number of people in the 0-25K group that are not poor (and you yourself said you were in that group last year because of deductions), and many people on the upper end who paid very little in taxes. Too bad there isn’t a way to better delineate it.</p>
<p>My program lets you assume the AMT patch will happen. </p>
<p>I discovered there is a 35% AMT bracket, and I am in it this year. So if the AMT patch doesn’t happen, I will really be in trouble.</p>
<p>I have to look into whether I can have DW use a Solo 401(k) instead of a SEP-IRA, and put more money into our retirement accounts. At a 35% discount, that’s a good deal.</p>
<p>And I’m considering accelerating some maintenance expenses for my rentals into this year if I can.</p>
<p>Anybody have any other ideas for lowering our taxes for this year?</p>
<p>“Anybody have any other ideas for lowering our taxes for this year?”</p>
<p>I’m seconding that question. Though if the AMT patch doesn’t happen, I don’t think there’s anything to be done about this year anyways, but suck it up. I’m mostly trying to figure out what to do about next year, if it’s not just a mild tax increase, but a multitude of tax increases, with limited deductions and higher rates. Still gotta work and pay the bills, and still looking for a strategy. Nothing looks good.</p>
The rate in 1981 was 5.35%. The rate now is 6.20%. On an income of $25K, that’s a difference of $212/year. Income taxes were cut by far more than 0.85% in this bracket.</p>
<p>What nobody ever talks about is how fast the income cap has increased. In 1981 the cap was $29.2K, this year it is $110.1K, which is a increase of about 3.8x. This is about 50% higher than inflation during that period, which means it’s not the poor who have gotten screwed, it’s the middle class.</p>
<p>Next year it will be $113.7K, which is 3.2% higher than this year. Inflation has been 2.2% for the last 12 months, so again the increase is 50% above inflation.</p>
<p>Just curious, is anyone actually selling their stocks to lock in 15% capital gain? Seems the potentially higher tax bracket would offset some of the benefits. We’ve already decided that our token shares of Apple will be treated as a family heirloom, passed from generation to generation.</p>
<p>Regarding reducing your taxes (and helping Santa at the North Pole) from my tax preparer’s newsletter:</p>
<p>" Big help if you install solar heating or power generating equipment. 30% of your total cost turns into a tax reduction. No limit on costs. The credit can be claimed for any home you personally occupy, even for a vacation property. Rentals don’t qualify. This one won’t expire until after 2016."</p>