Quote:
Originally Posted by macjoe53
That's why I growing fond of the idea of the flat-tax where everyone pays the same percentage of their income with no deductions and no tax shelters. Of course, it will never happen.
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Study these statistics..
http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250.html
The problem with a flat tax is that it would represent a huge increase for the lowest 50% of taxpayers and a perceived huge decrease for the top current payers. Maybe a 2 or three step flat tax... but then we are pretty much back to where we started.
The misnomer and unfair characterization that "rich people" don't pay enough taxes is born of lack of awareness of what is actually paid by whom today. The definition of "rich" with 20 years of inflation behind us becomes an interesting study in "tax bracket creep". Couple that with the ever increasing cap on SS wages and the change to unlimited for medicade medicare tax and there are many "hidden increases".
Check out the instructions on your tax forms. The typical "rich person" (Not super rich) ends up losing an ever increasing percent of their itemized deductions, effectively paying even higher rates than the schedule. In the past 20 years this has swept most of the middle/upper middle class into much higher tax brackets which has not been fully compensated by categorical reductions in the rates.
No easy solutions to our problems except maybe a bit higher economic growth rate and some rationalization of public spending.