Originally Posted by Diesel8

3/115=.026

7/650=.010

You pay way more on assessed value than I do!

You win!

Of course maybe your State does not have State Income Tax or Sales Tax. In any case government gets their pound of flesh by hook or by crook.

It all stinks.

Originally Posted by JamesNoBrakes

This idea has always fascinated me, that if you tax the rich, somehow they loose the will to work harder and earn more money. It's not that the ultimate amount that is limited, but you have to work harder to get it, but then all of a sudden you also expect the poor people to work hard and earn more money, so somehow poor people are supposed to work harder and earn more money, but rich people cannot find the will to work harder?

I'm in favor of some kind of balance, nothing too extreme, but again, this idea that if you tax at rates above 33-40%, the rich suddenly lose the will to work and will not work any harder to earn more money? Just seems so crazy to me...

Originally Posted by jcountry

I’ve never seen a study, but I would think the taxes far outstrip income in those states.

Many people in NY and NJ and Cali would pay 5x as much in property taxes for a house like mine. I don’t think they make 5x as much as our state’s average income though.

The problem is certain states have just become incredibly bureaucratic and inefficient. Those states don’t provide any goods or services to justify anywhere near that cost

Originally Posted by Qotsaautopilot

Verdict: new tax law was a tax cut for “high” earners and a wash or increase for the middle class in high tax states.

Originally Posted by PilotGR

actually the states in the NE overall have the best public schools. so our taxes are put to work.

I have no complaints about my services from my town where I live. Its expensive, but schools are excellent. Its safe and clean. Problem I have is that we are subsidizing the lower taxed states.

Originally Posted by Andy

You too? I don't know how many people claim to have the bestest public schools in the country. Oddly, they live in different parts of the country. I suppose the average statistician can bend the metrics to make any school district the best in the US.

As for subsidizing lower taxed states, there's a whole lot of playing with the numbers. But sure, thanks for subsidizing my state. Even though you don't.

Originally Posted by bluesideup1

i love it when people think that if we tax the wealthy that the deficit would disappear.

First a couple little facts. If we taxed everyone who made more than a million dollars a year 100% it would only fund the government for 4 months.
incorrect. The biggest problem with an effective tax system is that many wealthy people are illegally hiding money overseas. The us govt, and the irs, currently, do not even begin to know how many dollars are offshored illegally. No one knows how much money is being made by the very wealthy, because our system of tracking the money is crap.

second there is almost no one that makes more than you pays less in taxes than you. Even the famous quote by warren buffet who said "i paid less of a percentage of tax than my secretary" doesn't take into account what he paid in taxes to first fund the investments he is now living off of. For example you will be living off your investments such as 401k, ira, roth, etc. I am sure you don't want the government taxing money at the same rate they already taxed it before it went in now do you?
incorrect. There are plenty of people who make way more than me paying way less. As buffett said, he should be paying a higher % of tax than his secretary does...there are a lot of people in his situation. Secondly, as above, there are the people moving money out of the country illegally, and paying zero taxes on it. Thirdly, there are people who are able to reduce their tax liability to zero or less, by using "legal" means. A number of these tax loopholes used to be illegal, but they lobbied they politicians and got them to change the tax laws to make former illegal actions legal. An example would be trump, who will probably be paying zero income tax for the next 10 years, even though he is making a lot of money.

third is the french tried to raise the taxes on their wealthy and it hasn't gone as well as they thought. It brought in a lot less than they accounted for and each year it fell to the point that they were going to lose money as the rich left the country and no one with money was coming in. Needless to say they stopped the program only a couple years after implementing it.
when you implement a tax, you need to do it correctly. Cudos to the french for reducing taxes, when it made sense.

even the saying of lets tax the rich extra is asinine as the top 10 percent of the wage earners already pay 70% of the taxes. With the top 50% paying 97% of the taxes while half of america only pays 3% of the taxes.
i just read a study that shows the most effective top marginal tax rate for our america would be 63%. This is a lot less than previous: Eisenhower, our republican president, had a top marginal tax rate of 95%. The democratic congress came to him and asked to lower taxes. He said our america could not afford it, and kept the taxes high.

fourth even if we did raise the taxes on the rich and in some perfect universe it brought in a lot more cash the politicians would only spend more as not very many republicans and no democrats give a rats ass about lowering the deficit.
this is a big problem. It can be solved by ending corruption, as much as practical.

Just look at aoc massive increase in taxes to pay not for the deficit but for massive increases in government spending. Her plan was even endorsed by a most of the democratic front runners for president.
i want a more efficient government. If increased spending is more efficient, then great. If less spending is more efficient, then great. Currently we need to reduce government spending on: Our military, our social security and our health care system. All three of the above are on an upward trajectory that will bankrupt us all by themselves, unless positive changes are made.

so, please stop with the tax the rich because that only works until it runs out of rich people money and then you become the "rich" that needs to be taxed before it all falls apart and there is no one rich or poor left to tax.
your scenario here has already taken place. I am now the rich, because i am taxed at a much higher rate than many people that make more than me. They are forcing the middle class, and the upper middle class (me) to shoulder an unfair tax burden, so that the 0.1% can pay less than their fare share!!!

Originally Posted by andy

james, i don't know if you've seen what's happened to various states' tax bases that have raised taxes on the wealthy. Here's an article on the subject: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...205-story.html

applying that same logic to federal taxes, the wealthy can opt to emigrate to more tax friendly countries such as the bahamas or the cayman islands to name just two countries (of many) that one could flee the tax man.

In today's age where many wealthy people don't need to be physically located anywhere to make money, what's to stop them from moving out of country? Jim rogers, a wealthy investor/author, moved his family to singapore about a decade ago.
Eduardo savarin, one of the google founders, also moved to singapore in order to avoid the tax man. https://www.forbes.com/sites/naaznee.../#28918a2d6a8e saverin was roundly denounced by some democrats for being 'disloyal' for leaving the us to avoid the us' onerous taxes.

It's not that the rich won't work as hard; it's that the rich will move somewhere that doesn't vilify and financially rape the wealthy.
false for our america. You will pay taxes to the us, no matter where you live. You can renounce your citizenship, but then you will pay a massive penalty to do so...i believe it is 50% of your assets...


whenever i hear a politician promise free college and other free stuff, my immediate thought is that we already spend too much on government so what's the plan to pay for it?
i strongly disagree. There are many things that the government can "pay more for" that will make our america more efficient. We also do not have an effective tax system, and are not generating the revenue that we could, and many people are not paying their fare share of the taxes.

another irritant is organizations like the patriotic millionaires who ask to have their taxes raised. They'll just get their accountants to avoid paying taxes but the upper middle class ends up with larger tax bills. If they really want to pay more, they can write a check to the treasury. But the wealthy don't send extra money to the government.

$4.4 trillion that the federal government spends annually needs to be reduced. We don't have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem.
we have both a spending and a revenue problem. To change our america to a more efficient country, we need to change our spending, and change our revenue system.

Originally Posted by atpcliff

They need to burn down the Federal Tax System.

My first choice is a VAT, with an additional tax on the wealthy based on Net Worth.
My second choice is a National Sales Tax (exclusions for food, clothing, medicine, utilities, child care), with an additional tax on the wealthy based on Net Worth.
My third choice is a Flat Tax (NOT income) based on ALL MONIES RECEIVED, with an additional tax on the wealthy based on Net Worth.

If we can't do our taxes ourselves, on a postcard, we are DOING IT WRONG!!!

I am sick and tired of our current system. We are paying about 25% income tax, while thousands, if not more, of people who make WAY MORE THAN ME are paying WAY LESS than 25%.

If we JUST did a flat income tax of 25%, our deficit would be over and we would have money to start Making America Great Again, by doing things like making our transportation infrastructure #1 on Our Earth, like it used to be.