[FoRK] Re: Limeys can't comprehend US tax law? ;-)

[Owen Byrne]

And the next paragraph says...
"Other taxes in the United States with a less progressive structure or  
a regressive structure, and legal tax avoidance loopholes change the  
overall tax burden distribution. For example, the payroll tax system  
(FICA), a 12.4% Social Security tax on wages up to $97,500 and a 2.9%  
Medicare tax (a 15.3% total tax that is often split between employee  
and employer) is a regressive tax on income with no standard deduction  
or personal exemptions. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities  
states that three-fourths of U.S. taxpayers pay more in payroll taxes  
than they do in income taxes.[12] The Tax Foundation has stated that  
the burden of the corporate income tax (a 15-39% tax) falls on  
customers and workers of the corporations, who are often not rich.[13]"

Owen

On Apr 25, 2008, at 12:51 AM, Jeff Bone wrote:

>
> On Apr 24, 2008, at 10:38 PM, Kevin Elliott wrote:
>
>> But anyone who thinks it needs it because "the rich aren't doing  
>> their part", is officially an idiot...
>
> Right on!
>
> Fyi, here's a rather interesting blurb (not fact checked) from  
> Wikipedia about the distribution of taxes in this country...
>
> Tax distribution
>
>  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_the_United_States#Tax_distribution
>
> There are about 117 million taxpayers in the United States.[8] The  
> Treasury Department in 2006 reported, based on Internal Revenue  
> Service (IRS) data, the share of federal income taxes paid by  
> taxpayers of various income levels. The data shows the progressive  
> tax structure of the U.S. federal income tax system on individuals  
> that reduces the tax incidence of people with smaller incomes, as  
> they shift the incidence disproportionately to those with higher  
> incomes - the top 0.1% of taxpayers by income pay 17.4% of federal  
> income taxes (earning 9.1% of the income), the top 1% with gross  
> income of $328,049 or more pay 36.9% (earning 19%), the top 5% with  
> gross income of $137,056 or more pay 57.1% (earning 33.4%), and the  
> bottom 50% with gross income of $30,122 or less pay 3.3% (earning  
> 13.4%).[9][10] If the federal taxation rate is compared with  
> thewealth distribution rate, the net wealth (not only income but  
> also including real estate, cars, house, stocks, etc) distribution  
> of the United States does almost coincide with the share of income  
> tax - the top 1% pay 36.9% of federal tax (wealth 32.7%), the top 5%  
> pay 57.1% (wealth 57.2%), top 10% pay 68% (wealth 69.8%), and the  
> bottom 50% pay 3.3% (wealth 2.8%).[11]
>
> "Progressive" taxation indeed.  Yeah Geege, you're right:  I'm a  
> "regressive tax protectionist."
>
> jb
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> FoRK mailing list
> http://xent.com/mailman/listinfo/fork