<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/06/business/worldbusiness/06tax.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/06/business/worldbusiness/06tax.html</a></p>
<p>This is more prolemetic</p>
<p>They should lockup all the investment bankers in some posh prison so we can see how the economy does without their shenanigans. No Dotbom bust, no mortgage bust, no stupid takeovers followed by bankruptcy and job losses. These clowns do nothing useful. But they are well paid.</p>
<p>don’t lock them up. take all their money and make them go work for a living like the rest of us.</p>
<p>There are only a relatively few rich people who try to avoid paying income taxes illegally. The rest are fully exploited by an unfair and extreme income tax system. If you are of average income, you can thank the rich for most the free federal government services you are receiving.</p>
<p>^^And these free services are ? Hmm,can not think of any…</p>
<p>Nearly half of Americans do not pay federal income taxes. All of the federal expenditures arising from federal income taxes are free to them.</p>
<p>If you are one that doesn’t pay federal income tax or very low amounts here are some things you are getting the benefit of that some rich person paid for:</p>
<ol>
<li> A military force unparalleled in the world</li>
<li> Freedom to complain about your government and not get punished for it</li>
<li> Welfare if you ever fall on desperate times and need it</li>
<li> A space program that has advanced our quality of life in so many ways you can’t count them</li>
<li> The ability to send a standard letter anywhere in the US for virtually nothing</li>
</ol>
<p>I’m quite positive I am missing several key/huge benefits that the gov’t provides. This isn’t a political thing for me…just a matter of practicality. Considering the top 1% of income earners pay 50% of the taxes I think they pay enough. I happen to fall in to that middle class, lest you think I am one of the top 1%. And yes, I do pay taxes every year…but on a percentage basis not nearly as much as those that earn more than I do.</p>
<p>
Isn’t it the middle class (that makes up a higher percentage of the population than the rich) whose members pay a higher percentage of their taxes than do the wealthy?</p>
<p>
Uh, isn’t there a disproportionate number of lower income people who make up the military? Aren’t the poor the ones who typically fought in the wars that gave us the freedom to “complain about the government”?</li>
</ol>
<p>Exactly right! America is the city on the hill beaming its light for all the world to see. All other countries are third world, and destitute.</p>
<p>There’s a reason America has to spend unprecedented amounts of capital on a defense budget, and it’s partly because of the cocky and naive attitude evinced above.</p>
<p>Excuse my tirade, as I’m digressing from the point at hand. You’re talking about these people who pay taxes for a military force (for instance) as if they are philanthropic martyrs. What you are talking about is a variation of the Prisoner’s dilemma. By providing a defense for themselves they can’t exclude others because national defense is a non-excludable good. It’s pure self-interest.</p>
<p>Nothing philanthropic about it. It’s a fact. The wealthiest 1% pay 50% of the taxes. The bottom 50% pay virtually nothing. That means, in rough terms, that the 49% left pay the other 50%. I’m pretty sure I paid about 12% in federal taxes last year (one of those middle class folks btw). Both on a percentage basis and dollar base the wealthy pay more than I do. </p>
<p>I suppose you think that the poor should pay nothing for bread and milk (oh wait, there’s welfare, we’re paying that for a lot of them) and that the wealthy should pay $5 for a gallon of milk and $4 for a loaf of bread?</p>
<p>I’m all for a flat tax where every single wage earner pays the same percentage of taxes, no matter how wealthy or poor. I’m assuming that you aren’t in favor of that since those with more money should be paying more…</p>
<p>The federal government was set up to provide a national defense for all…not really much else. It’s all the other junk (welfare, federal intervention in education, social security, etc…) that is the problem.</p>
<p><<2. Freedom to complain about your government and not get punished for it>></p>
<p>Never thought it’s a goverment service, moreover service paid by reach people taxes.</p>
<p>The taxes levied to pay for wars that allow for free speech. If you can’t make that connection, sorry. I’d really hate to be speaking german or japanese right now. Then again if that were the case I wouldn’t likely be educated enough to care about posting on a board like this…</p>
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<p>You may not like what they do, but to assert that they don’t work hard is beyond stupid. IBankers work harder than almost any other profession. Whether they do anything particularly useful to society is, of course, another matter.</p>
<p>1of42, I couldn’t agree with you more. There are those who are always going to be jealous and think that folks that have more didn’t do anything to deserve it. If I wanted to work harder I could likely have more. Taking away someone’s wealth because you don’t like how they legally earned it…that’s a road I wouldn’t want to go down. Smacks of communism…maybe worse.</p>
<p>:) 
;)</p>
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<p>Just curious, how many of those bottom 50% that don’t pay taxes in the statistics are children, the disabled, the sick and the old ?</p>
<p>I’m assuming since it is prefaced with “income earners” that the vast majority of children, disable, elderly, etc… wouldn’t be in there. I could likely find the source data but to be honest I’m not all that compelled to do so. You can’t reason with some folks on certain issues. When they start talking about taking peoples money because they have too much I cease to be concerned with their opinion. </p>
<p>The point about the makeup of the 50% is certainly taken however. They always say you can make statistics show whatever you want them to show.</p>
<p>“I suppose you think that the poor should pay nothing for bread and milk (oh wait, there’s welfare, we’re paying that for a lot of them) and that the wealthy should pay $5 for a gallon of milk and $4 for a loaf of bread?”</p>
<p>Generally speaking, the wealthy expolit the poor to become so. As globalization increases, so does the necessity of social insurance. Companies move abroad for profit, and people lose their jobs. Without welfare programs people would be up in arms (even more so) demanding closed markets-which is not what the rich want. See Dani Rodrik “Sense and Nonsense.”</p>
<p>Personally, I don’t think people should be forced to do anything. But if we are assuming that taxes are required to be paid, then I would say the rich have a greater citizenly duty to pay more in taxes as they have a disproportionate ability. If you have a small amount of disposable income then it is reasonable to assume that only a small portion of it can be allocated towards taxes as the rest will go to necessities. When you, however, have tens of millions in disposable income then it can be assumed that you can reasonably be expected to pay 20%.</p>
<p>I have no issue with the rich paying their share of taxes. I’m all for it. I do take issue with thinking that they should pay 33% to my 12%. In this country you don’t begin to pay any kind of significant federal taxes until you are making a pretty decent buck, in general. We were poor by many standards for many years. I never once felt exploited btw. Undereducated perhaps? Lazy perhaps? Never exploited. </p>
<p>As for state, local and all the other federal, non-income taxes…that’s a whole other discussion.</p>
<p>S has returned from his internship and is done with his Masters from Toronto. I told him that the first thing he has to do is to complete his 2007 taxes. He discovers that the 2006 is done incorrectly, and I reply that I thought so too, and I had questioned the large Canadian CPA and our friendly USA, local, multicity CPA(we share fruits with CPA) with India data branch, that their calculation for income is way off. By my calculation, I think they were off by 200% of his stated income. This amount is a huge amount for a student with TA wages. Tax liability is potentially several thousands either in CAD or USD, plus penalty. </p>
<p>OP statement, “How rich are hiding income and not paying taxes”. Ans, Hire expensive CPAs, who think they know it all.</p>