Wait, what? - According to the CBO, the Bush tax cuts have resulted in an 8.9% reduction in taxes for the top quintile of taxpayers and a 32.8% reduction for the bottom quintile.
On a related note, I finished my taxes this weekend. The tax forms are just hopelessly - and, dare I say, purposely - complicated. Let me state conspiratorially that I think the Byzantine nature of the tax code is all a big racket by the H&R Blocks and tax accountants across the country. The time, energy, and money spent preparing these forms is a like a hidden tax on Americans. (/rant)
4 comments:
www.turbotax.com
Just use it. Once you do, you'll never even dream of fiddling with paper filing again. Sure, you pay a small fee (I paid $30 this year to file my federal), but it's well worth it.
Just go thru the screens answering questions -- only took me about 30 minutes. Then have them efile the sucker. About a week later, the refund shows up in your checking account.
Quick, easy, painless.
More from Michael W. Kruse, who posted the above link:
On another note, keep in mind that movement in and out of quintiles is quite fluid. Sell a house or receive an inheritance and you will suddenly find you self bumped up a quintile or two.
Oh, is that all? Don't worry, poor people! As soon as Rich Uncle Leo kicks off, you'll skyrocket up to the bottom 40%! What a fine day that will be.
Kruse also floats the official fairy tale (which has never occurred in U.S. history) that higher tax rates strangle the upper class's ambition to earn more money. He also writes that the rich, with their much higher proportions of nontaxable income, will only be provoked to hide MORE assets if their tax rate is raised... thus hurting the little man! And, as one of the commenters puts it, the old "The wealthy are more virtuous argument."
If the topic interests you, don't skip Kruse's comments section. It pounds his methodology and premise, and mostly from the conservative standpoint.
Anonymous,
1. As a Management Consultant, I've known plenty of very successful consultants who don't bother working past a certain point because they are keeping less than half of what they earn.
2. Of course the rich will hide their money - paying taxes is for suckers. Why else would the Kennedy's, Rockefellers, and Heinz-Kerry's have their money in offshore accounts?
Why else would the Kennedy's, Rockefellers, and Heinz-Kerry's have their money in offshore accounts?
Double damn those Democrats and moderate Republicans!
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