Speaker looking for way to pay for tax cuts for middle-class

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jeffrey
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Whatever justification needs to be made to emerse the wealthiest American in taxes, I’m all for it. Say it’s to help the middle class or say it’s to pay for the Invasion of Iraq. Say it’s to pay for schools or say it’s to pay for universal health care.

I will not think that the wealthiest Americans have paid enough in taxes until I hear them wailing like banshees. Currently I hear them cackling with delight over their tax status and laughing at the concern they get from the folks in the lower tax brackets.
Yeah tax the sucessful to death. That’s always the best way to go. How about we have the same kind of progressive tax for the middle class you know 20%+ how’d you like that?

Catholig
 
Why would it not be fair to simply have one flat tax?
It would be fair if we eliminated all forms of double taxation (such as the death tax) and any taxes on gifts (which the giver already payed for), and then ended the progressive tax so that everyone would have to pay an equal percentage of their income.

Catholig
 
It would be fair if we eliminated all forms of double taxation (such as the death tax) and any taxes on gifts (which the giver already payed for), and then ended the progressive tax so that everyone would have to pay an equal percentage of their income.

Catholig
How about the Fair Tax ? That would be even better IMO.
 
How about the Fair Tax ? That would be even better IMO.
I visited the website but it makes no sense IMO. Can you explain it any better? What is this about a pre-bate, and what does a progressive retail tax look like? 20% tax on bread? on clothing? That’d be a bit much IMO. It much rather they levied tariffs on foreign goods. A conservative Conservative’s dream 😃 This’d encourage the American Economy (even though it would entitle a bit more cost if you insisted on buying from China).

Catholig
 
Yeah tax the sucessful to death. That’s always the best way to go. How about we have the same kind of progressive tax for the middle class you know 20%+ how’d you like that?

Catholig
I’d rather tax the non-working wealthy and the inheritors of great wealth. It’s not work I want immersed in taxes but non-work. That would rule out the middle class because they are workers.
 
It was not my intent to point out your spelling errors. It was my intent to put you in the shoes of the “rich” guy who you seemed to be so eager to relieve of excess property.
Who says I’m not in the very category you describe? I’m not proposing something for others that I and my family would not be subject to.
 
Who says I’m not in the very category you describe? I’m not proposing something for others that I and my family would not be subject to.
If you don’t feel you pay enough, you always have the option to pay more. Knock yourself out! 👍
 
I visited the website but it makes no sense IMO. Can you explain it any better? What is this about a pre-bate, and what does a progressive retail tax look like? 20% tax on bread? on clothing? That’d be a bit much IMO. It much rather they levied tariffs on foreign goods. A conservative Conservative’s dream 😃 This’d encourage the American Economy (even though it would entitle a bit more cost if you insisted on buying from China).

Catholig
I was skeptical as well. The best place for answers is their
FAQ page:
fairtax.org/fairtax/faqs.htm
Why not just exempt food and medicine from the tax? Wouldn’t that be fair and simple?
Exempting items by category is neither fair nor simple. Respected economists have shown that the wealthy spend much more on unprepared food, clothing, housing, and medical care than do the poor. Exempting these goods, as many state sales taxes do, actually gives the wealthy a disproportionate benefit. Also, today these purchases are not exempted from federal taxation. The purchase of food, clothing, and medical services is made from *after-*income-tax and *after-*payroll-tax dollars, while their purchase price hides the cost of corporate taxes and private sector compliance costs.
Finally, exempting one product or service, but not another, opens the door to the army of lobbyists and special interest groups that plague and distort our taxation system today. Those who have the money will send lobbyists to Washington to obtain special tax breaks in their own self-interest. This process causes unfair and inefficient distortions in our economy and must be stopped.
 
Given that a tax on the rich is probably going to end up equalling a loss of middle class jobs, either directly by cutting the wealthy’s spending or indirectly by cutting the wealthy’s capital investment, go for it.
 
I’d rather tax the non-working wealthy and the inheritors of great wealth. It’s not work I want immersed in taxes but non-work. That would rule out the middle class because they are workers.
The retirees would scream over that one. They live on pensions, investments, and other unearned income.
No politician would risk the wrath of AARP.
So they would have to set up some threshold value below which there would be no (or less) tax. But with returns of 2-5% if you want to get even a modest annual income you would need to have a big sum of money invested. To the poor man it might not sound to good to hear that someone with half a million in the bank is paying no taxes.

Besides a clever rich person could just set up an LLC to manage his investments for him and then pay himself a salary from it. How would the IRS distinguish between that and a lazy rich guy would just left the money in a bank?

Tax reform is always a bear. No one wants to pay; everyone wants the services; and we all think that we pay more than our fair share.

I just don’t know what the answer is.
 
I suggest that if the politicians choose to work less days than we pay them for… the money for those unworked days be sent directly to the IRS… (or to me)

.
 
Given that a tax on the rich is probably going to end up equalling a loss of middle class jobs, either directly by cutting the wealthy’s spending or indirectly by cutting the wealthy’s capital investment, go for it.
And have they established what rich is?
 
If a person contemplating retirement thinks he or she will need an income of $50,000 for some level of comfort (and pay for all the various expenses … taxes on your house are VERY high in New Jersey)… then, if they can get 4% by investing in CD’s (very safe), they would need to put … how much money in the bank?

Well … $50,000 divided by 4% = $1,250,000.

Now, that principle amount of $1.25 million doesn’t give much allowance for inflation … the erosion of buying power owing to the increase in the money supply. So, a retiree would need more than that.

Social security provides maybe half or less of the annual income amount. But basically, somehow, a person needs to be able to sock away in the vicinity of $1 million. That’s assuming they have a house and a car that are paid for.

Those prone to envy might say that’s would make the retiree “RICH”.

But is that really being RICH?

No Learjets there. No servants or mansions. No Rolls Royces. Hardly a jetsetting lifestyle.

And if you want to help your kids out or make a charitable donation (to CA??), then where does the money come from?

And how much must the retiree have scrimped and saved during his or her working life to put away that much money?

And what if the retiree, when he or se was working, encountered some sort of obstacle that caused loss of job or ill health? Does out tax structure allow the worker to save and invest during a few good years? Nope. Higher income results in much higher taxes … because institutional and bureaucratic envy result in the worker being called “rich”.

So, how is a “middle class” worker suddenly supposed to cope with being labelled “rich” because he or she works hard and sacrifices to put money aside for retirement?
 
If a person contemplating retirement thinks he or she will need an income of $50,000 for some level of comfort (and pay for all the various expenses … taxes on your house are VERY high in New Jersey)… then, if they can get 4% by investing in CD’s (very safe), they would need to put … how much money in the bank?

Well … $50,000 divided by 4% = $1,250,000.

Now, that principle amount of $1.25 million doesn’t give much allowance for inflation … the erosion of buying power owing to the increase in the money supply. So, a retiree would need more than that.

Social security provides maybe half or less of the annual income amount. But basically, somehow, a person needs to be able to sock away in the vicinity of $1 million. That’s assuming they have a house and a car that are paid for.

Those prone to envy might say that’s would make the retiree “RICH”.

But is that really being RICH?

No Learjets there. No servants or mansions. No Rolls Royces. Hardly a jetsetting lifestyle.
This is not rich by any standard especially in our state of NJ…
 
[Sorry, Karin, I got carried away and spent so much time editing my post, that I “wrote over you”. Apologies.]
  • Al
 
The best way to save is to work part time for unreported cash, use a full time job to put savings away pretax and secure benefits.

Even without a full time job, the benefit of working under the table saves you enough in FICA and Medicare withholding to make it worthwhile, and a minimum wage job will give you some legit income and you’ll qualify for a huge subsidy in the form of the earned income credit come tax time. Better yet, you can qualify for state health insurance and food stamps. If you’re really smart, you can “rent” your house from a relative and both of you clean up.

Four households with children can easily knock down in the area of a quarter mil a year.

If you live simply, you can live very well indeed.

The American people are suckers.
 
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