Friday, April 22, 2011

700 Rich People Who Think Wealth Should Be Taxed Just Like Work!

Before you file away your copy of your taxes, give this Federal Taxpayer receipt a try.  It’s on the White House website.Tax Receipt

Okay, maybe I’m just the last person to see this but it is cool!

Just plug in the dollar amount on your taxes for Social Security Taxes paid, Medicare taxes paid and your income tax minus any refund or plus anything you paid when filing.

Hit calculate and you’ll get a receipt for what you paid for both as a proportion of each expense and the dollar amount.  It really puts things in perspective both in terms of the services rendered but it informs public discussions about debt etc.

Our two local governments in Durham, the City and County have something similar but not nearly as personal.  I wonder if the State of North Carolina has one.

A GfK poll last month in conjunction with Roper and Associated Press revealed that 54% of Americas believe their tax burden is fair and 46% don’t.

Not everybody who’s whining is rich though.  Click here for 700 people in the top 5% of income or wealth in the nation who have signed a pledge that wealth should be taxed like work.

There are now so many tax breaks that 45% of Americans pay no Federal taxes and the tax rate paid by the 400 Super Rich in this nation has dropped to 17% in 2007 from 26% nearly two decades ago. Meanwhile, the average tax paid by all Americans dropped three-tenths of a point from 9.9% to 9.6%.

The tax code is riddled with a trillion dollars in exemptions now, averaging about $8,000 per taxpayer.

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