4 ms·
Just one more tax on the poor edit: 'tax', I am not being literal
by andbberger 8y ago
Just one more tax on the poor
edit: 'tax', I am not being literal
- ratsmack 8y agoIf the US went to a flat tax, would the "poor" still be taxed unfairly?
- andbberger 8y agoSure if it's still as difficult to file as it is now. I'm not talking about a literal tax
- tstrimple 8y agoYes. Fair doesn't necessarily mean equal. A 10% tax could eat up literally all the disposable income of someone who is barely scraping by, but is hardly noticed by a person who is bringing in hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
- jniedrauer 8y agoIn a fair society, it would become more and more challenging to move up the economic ladder as you reach higher levels. In our society, life gets easier as you move up. Beyond a certain threshold, you can set up a self-maintaining rent seeking empire and stop working entirely, while your wealth accumulation continues to accelerate.
- clarkmoody 8y agoWell, you've got dozens of different taxes out there, and most of them are regressive. A "flat tax" income tax would probably have a lower bound number below which your taxes scale linearly down to zero. But tweaking the income tax does nothing for the other payroll extractions. Or the gasoline excise tax. Or the sales tax. Or property tax (paid through rent). Or tariffs. Or the hidden tax on the everyone: inflation. That paycheck doesn't go quite as far each year, does it? Beyond that, you've got land-use controls and building restrictions that artificially drive up the cost of housing close to job centers. Then school zones create more barriers. You'll spend more time commuting, which means the rest of your life is more difficult. And buying a car is more expensive as the regulatory burden on auto-makers increases year after year. Unfortunately, this is where many say, "Well the government just needs to help those in need." So taxes go up. Rent control is added. Rinse & repeat.
- fwip 8y agoFlat is simple, not fair.
- rb808 8y agoYou can say a lot of things about US tax system. But working class people usually pay single digit tax rates, much lower than most countries.
- fucking_tragedy 8y agoAs an engineer who needs to work in order to eat and keep a roof over my head, my effective tax rate is more than double that of someone who doesn't need to work because they live off of capital gains, dividends or inheritance.
- mikeash 8y agoFICA alone is 15.3% starting from the first dollar earned. Add in local income and sales tax and I don’t see how anyone who earns money could be paying a single digit rate.
- WkndTriathlete 8y agoIf no one can claim you as a dependent the bottom 40-45% gets every single dime of that FICA tax back (through credits/etc.) on their tax return.
- klipt 8y agoHalf of FICA is paid by the employer. And low earners actually pay negative federal taxes (Earned Income Tax Credit).
- mikeash 8y agoBeing paid by the employer is an accounting gimmick meant to make the rate look lower than it is.
- bluGill 8y agoEffective rates. The child tax credit; 401k and other income deductions; the standard deduction, - it all adds up. Your tax can be much less than the minimum rate if you want. (of course this is about trade offs, if you don't otherwise want a kid the child tax credit isn't of much use)
- refurb 8y agoReally? You can file for free with EZ file if you make less than $65K. Or do you consider people making >$65K poor?
- webninja 8y agoDoes EZ file have an ability to import stock trades? Or is it for non-equity owners?