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[edit]Year 2011 income brackets and tax rates
Marginal Tax Rate[6] Single Married Filing Jointly or Qualified Widow(er) Married Filing Separately Head of Household
10% $0 – $8,500 $0 – $17,000 $0 – $8,500 $0 – $12,150
15% $8,501 – $34,500 $17,001 – $69,000 $8,501 – $34,500 $12,150 – $46,250
25% $34,501 – $83,600 $69,001 – $139,350 $34,501 – $69,675 $46,250 – $119,400
28% $83,601 – $174,400 $139,351 – $212,300 $69,675 – $106,150 $119,401 – $193,350
33% $174,401 – $379,150 $212,301 – $379,150 $106,151 – $189,575 $193,350 – $379,150
35% $379,151+ $379,651+ $189,576+ $379,151+
How are you figuring these 15 % taxes? Are you talking about long-term capital gains versus earned income? Is Hyppo representing Warren Buffett, whose company Berkshire Hathaway, is fighting the IRS not pay $1 billion that IRS says that B-H owes? I thought Buffett was all for taxes, except when applied to himself and his assets. As Buffett says, “I can spend the money more wisely than the government can.”
In 2009, 236,883 people reported more than $1 million in income — and paid $177 billion in federal income taxes. That represents 0.2 percent of all federal tax returns, but makes up more than 20 percent of all income tax payments.
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Kudos to you for being the one to challenge my data! I have it on file back at the casa. I’ll dig it out and post it later.
I, of course, sourced the numbers before using them in something as important as a comic strip. Ha! 🙂
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Here’s the source for the 15% tax rate on Critter’s $25,000 income:
DinkyTown.net (check the single column)
I admit DinkyTown.com might not be the world’s best source. 🙂
The 15% tax rate on Hyppo’s $1 million came from a news article from a major mainstream newspaper. I can no longer find it. It was a bit about how the effective rate they pay turns out to be something like 15%. IRS.gov recently made news with something about the tax rate on the richest 200 Americans, too. It’s not that hard to find.
The bit about Hyppo threatening to move his money to offshore shelters in the face of a tax hike I got from GOP logic somewhere. Again I can’t find the link.
I apologize for that. I didn’t think to bookmark the pages.
It is a fact that there is only a 15% tax rate on capital gains. If you’re the rich, you just might not be punching a clock. If all your income comes from capital gains then it is easy to see that 15% is a very reasonable estimate.
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For me the real issue, is not the taxation of some of these uber rich people, but how many of them made their money. The government has allowed many in the financial sector to steal us blind. Also, various administrations, including Obama’s, have their pet capitalists, who get special favors, such as in the Solyndra case. We are now stuck with half a billion dollars lost in that deal, and Obama’s billionaire donor George Kaiser gets first dibs on whatever’s left. There is some suggestion that it could even be a billion dollars lost. The deal was crap from day one, and the administration knew it. It was our stimulus tax money down the drain, borrowed from China. And now Obama wants to raises taxes so he can waste more money. Why not cut the size of government and stop passing out financial favors to cronies? I’m sure, Bush did this, too, but now it’s being done on steroids.
This is from a writer in the New York Times today. “For the last 25 years, Washington politicians and policy makers have consistently cushioned the market forces that would have punished executives at large financial institutions. The policy of bailing out creditors at these institutions — 100 cents on the dollar — has made it easier for these institutions to borrow and lend to each other.
That leverage has made the financial system more fragile. But it has also allowed executives in the financial sector to earn a lot more money than they would have in a market system where people who make bad loans get punished by losing your money. By bailing out creditors at large financial institutions, taxpayers have sent hundreds of billions of dollars to some of the richest people in human history. That’s bad policy.”
FACT CHECK: Are rich taxed less than secretaries?
http://news.yahoo.com/fact-check-rich-taxed-less-secretaries-070642868.html
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God Bless America!
Or something like that.
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According to that Fact Check link, yes, some rich are taxed less than secretaries. It’s possible.
I agree that plenty is askew. Our system should reward people who add value.
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Definitely, our system should reward people who add value. The deck seems to be stacked to reward a lot of people who know and donate to or vote for the people in charge without regard to the benefit of everyone else. Various psychology studies show that people will accept a few freeloaders both at the top and the bottom, but when it reaches critical mass in which the freeloaders start to take over leaving nothing for the rest, hell breaks out!
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Who are the freeloaders, though? I’ve seen many who are the ones with the money, and I’ve seen plenty who work their asses off pulling down two or more jobs and yet have nothing. No system will be perfect, but I think it’s wrong when a lying asshole who treats people like shit gets the bulk of the profits and the good people who make that possible get the tiniest of subsistence slices. It’s basically a situation where the good people are propping up the inflated lifestyle of the bad. That’s not cool.
I’m sure the inverse can also be true. I just don’t see that much.
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