Trump calls for 10% tariff on all imports

People cherry pick numbers to make their case. This case only cherry picks federal income tax and ignores all payroll and state and local taxes.

Here is an analysis that takes into account all of those taxes and compares to shares of income.

Who Pays Taxes in America in 2019?

 

Then stop asking for more!

 

No, but no one knows if Obama even went to college... NO RECORDS...

 

Of course you would only see it that way. You’d triple tax everyone if you could.
Your kind wants to squeeze the man and reinforce the govt.
So sad.

 

Kenya believe it?

 

Ok.....
Using your graph, the top 20% pay nearly 70% of all taxes. How much of all taxes do you want or expect them to pay?

 

Still haven't answered the question. If the top 20% of earners make 62% of the income, then what percentage of total taxes should they be responsible for? They are already paying north of 80% of the income tax, should they be responsible for 80% of all taxes? Top 20% is anyone over $130,000 annually.

 

It is double taxation by definition. I’m not specifically saying it’s bad. The only reason I bring it up is you have to evaluate it in context. It’s easier to look at the impact of dividends where it is more obvious, but ultimate dividends and capital gains come from the same thing, it’s just form and timing.

So when someone says cap gains rates are too low because they are lower than ordinary income tax rates, you should take into account that the income has already been taxed as corporate income tax level. Again not saying that is bad. Whether it is bad or not are arguments of efficiency and fairness.

For the record I think the current corporate tax is too low. The prior rate is too high. I agreed with Obama it should be closer to 28%.

As a comparison a pass through entity like an S Corp or partnership only gets taxed once. The income of the entity passes through to the owner and are taxed as owner income at ordinary rates.

These are economic and accounting taxation facts.

 

The graph shows that each income group pays taxes roughly proportional to their earnings. I don’t have a particular number that I expect any particular group to pay.

Could higher income afford to pay more taxes, yes. Should they pay dramatically more taxes, no. Can we solve our budget problems, wants and needs simply by taxing the rich, not even close.

 

That’s not the way it works but using your logic with dividends and capital gains that would be triple taxation - Corp income tax, dividend tax, sales tax.

Again compare the treatment of pass through entities like S corps to C Corps.

 

I think this graph is informative. It gives the effective tax rate of each income group.




Some may argue with their methodology but the point is the tax system, including all taxes, is progressive in total, but not as progressive as some may think. Whether that is bad or good depends on one’s viewpoint.

 

It is not meaningless. You just choose to ignore standard economic terminology for what I assume are partisan reasons.

You won’t even acknowledge the difference between S Corp and C Corp taxes, where S Corp owners income is taxed once and C Corp it is taxed twice.

 

feel free to dig into it.

Who Pays Taxes in America in 2020?

FWIW they are typically accused of being more slanted left vs right.

“Who Pays?” Doesn’t Tell Us Much About Who Actually Pays State Taxes

You have to make reasonable assumptions. Such as, who do you assign the employer side of payroll taxes to, the employer or the employee? The most accepted economic assumption is you assign it to the employee as tax and income since it is a cost of labor and there really is no difference between employer withheld tax and employee withheld payroll tax - they are both withheld and emitted to the government.

What about employee medical benefits that are not taxed? In theory those should be counted as income. I don’t know how they handle that.

Also, what about corporate income tax? This gets back to our other argument. Corporate income tax is borne by shareholders, and should be assigned to shareholders who tend to be higher income. But what income to assign and not double counting it (dividends / capital gains) can get fairly complicated.