another look at taxes
Jul.10, 2009 in
barack obama
Tax Fact #1
The Internal Revenue Service employs more than 136,000 people which is higher than the CIA, FBI, and DEA combined. Now, let's think about that for a minute. In other words, our government spends more time and effort collecting taxes than it does in fighting crime, collecting intelligence on terrorists, or fighting the drug cartels. Perhaps we should reevaluate our priorities and come up with a simpler way to pay our taxes.
Tax Fact #2
There are 1,200,000 professional tax preparers in the United States vs. 836,000 doctors. Again, perhaps we as a nation should look at how our human resources are being spent. Is our tax code so complicated that we need more people to help us pay taxes than we need to keep us healthy?
Tax Fact #3
The income tax was started by Abraham Lincoln to pay for the Civil War. The tax began as an 8% flat tax on income over $800. There are two important aspects to this tax fact that should be noted. First is that the primary reason for the income tax was to pay for the government's debts and obligations. Secondly, the tax was a flat tax which was applied equally amongst all taxpayers. The income tax was not designed for income redistribution or any other social changing experiment. The progressive income tax of today began in 1913.
Tax Fact #4
In 2005, the average family paid 38% of total income to the IRS. This is more than they spent on food, clothing, and shelter combined. Now, this was obviously only the families that actually paid income taxes which as you will see below is only 50% of the families in the country.
Tax Fact #5
The bottom 48% of all American families pays little or no taxes. In fact, if you total up all the income taxes paid by this group, it would only equal 2.8% of all taxes paid. Now, if the democrats are advocating tax cuts to the poor, you have to wonder who they are talking about since half of Americans pay no tax at all. How can you give tax cuts to those who do not pay taxes?
Tax Fact #6
In 2005, the top 13, 776 tax payers out of 134,372,678 paid over 10% of all income taxes. In other words, about 1/10 of 1% of our wealthier citizens paid a full 10% of our total tax bill. The democrats would have you believe that the rich are not paying their share. Looking at these numbers, one would have to really question their definition of fairness. Are the democrats truly trying to appeal to our sense of fairness or perhaps to our feelings of class envy?
Tax Fact #7
The top 2.7% of taxpayers pay over 51% of all income taxes collected. This is a staggering statistic given the average Americans sense of equality and fair play.
Tax Fact #8
In 2005, there were 303,000 households reporting income over $1,000,000. These taxpayers paid over 25% of all income taxes collected. That figure is truly remarkable when taken into perspective. With over 134 million returns, 25% of the taxes were collected from just 303,000 people. This would equate to the citizens of Pittsburgh (pop. 325,000) being responsible for 25% of the entire countrys tax burden.
Tax Fact #9
The largest segment or income bracket is the $50,000 - $75,000 income level which is 13.7% of the total. The middle class taxpayer is talked about a lot, but there really is no true agreed upon definition for exactly what is middle class. This is just one definition.
Tax Fact #10
In 2005, 10.7% of all taxpayers (households) made over $100,000 and were forced to pay 71% of all income taxes collected.
As you can see from the facts as reported by the IRS, there are several myths or un-truths that continue to be promoted by politicians seeking to be elected. The first is the myth that the poor need tax relief. It is not the poor that need this relief because they do not pay taxes now. It is the middle to upper middle income families that need relief as they are the ones carrying the tax burden of this country. Rather than tax relief, the poor need to earn higher incomes and become actual tax payers. This would lighten the burden from other taxpayers.
The second myth is the we need to tax the rich populists propaganda. This is pure and simple pandering to class envy. Statistics show that the wealthy of this country pay way more than their share. Democrats and liberals must recognize that the way to improve our countrys economy is to provide incentive for hard work and entrepreneurial spirit, not to penalize and tax it into oblivion.
The financial data used in compiling the above was pulled from the final analysis reports from the IRS for the year of 2005, the latest year available. A copy of the report can be found in the archive section at www.politibyte.com or the IRS website.
** This quoted text is from politibyte.com **
The Internal Revenue Service employs more than 136,000 people which is higher than the CIA, FBI, and DEA combined. Now, let's think about that for a minute. In other words, our government spends more time and effort collecting taxes than it does in fighting crime, collecting intelligence on terrorists, or fighting the drug cartels. Perhaps we should reevaluate our priorities and come up with a simpler way to pay our taxes.
Tax Fact #2
There are 1,200,000 professional tax preparers in the United States vs. 836,000 doctors. Again, perhaps we as a nation should look at how our human resources are being spent. Is our tax code so complicated that we need more people to help us pay taxes than we need to keep us healthy?
Tax Fact #3
The income tax was started by Abraham Lincoln to pay for the Civil War. The tax began as an 8% flat tax on income over $800. There are two important aspects to this tax fact that should be noted. First is that the primary reason for the income tax was to pay for the government's debts and obligations. Secondly, the tax was a flat tax which was applied equally amongst all taxpayers. The income tax was not designed for income redistribution or any other social changing experiment. The progressive income tax of today began in 1913.
Tax Fact #4
In 2005, the average family paid 38% of total income to the IRS. This is more than they spent on food, clothing, and shelter combined. Now, this was obviously only the families that actually paid income taxes which as you will see below is only 50% of the families in the country.
Tax Fact #5
The bottom 48% of all American families pays little or no taxes. In fact, if you total up all the income taxes paid by this group, it would only equal 2.8% of all taxes paid. Now, if the democrats are advocating tax cuts to the poor, you have to wonder who they are talking about since half of Americans pay no tax at all. How can you give tax cuts to those who do not pay taxes?
Tax Fact #6
In 2005, the top 13, 776 tax payers out of 134,372,678 paid over 10% of all income taxes. In other words, about 1/10 of 1% of our wealthier citizens paid a full 10% of our total tax bill. The democrats would have you believe that the rich are not paying their share. Looking at these numbers, one would have to really question their definition of fairness. Are the democrats truly trying to appeal to our sense of fairness or perhaps to our feelings of class envy?
Tax Fact #7
The top 2.7% of taxpayers pay over 51% of all income taxes collected. This is a staggering statistic given the average Americans sense of equality and fair play.
Tax Fact #8
In 2005, there were 303,000 households reporting income over $1,000,000. These taxpayers paid over 25% of all income taxes collected. That figure is truly remarkable when taken into perspective. With over 134 million returns, 25% of the taxes were collected from just 303,000 people. This would equate to the citizens of Pittsburgh (pop. 325,000) being responsible for 25% of the entire countrys tax burden.
Tax Fact #9
The largest segment or income bracket is the $50,000 - $75,000 income level which is 13.7% of the total. The middle class taxpayer is talked about a lot, but there really is no true agreed upon definition for exactly what is middle class. This is just one definition.
Tax Fact #10
In 2005, 10.7% of all taxpayers (households) made over $100,000 and were forced to pay 71% of all income taxes collected.
As you can see from the facts as reported by the IRS, there are several myths or un-truths that continue to be promoted by politicians seeking to be elected. The first is the myth that the poor need tax relief. It is not the poor that need this relief because they do not pay taxes now. It is the middle to upper middle income families that need relief as they are the ones carrying the tax burden of this country. Rather than tax relief, the poor need to earn higher incomes and become actual tax payers. This would lighten the burden from other taxpayers.
The second myth is the we need to tax the rich populists propaganda. This is pure and simple pandering to class envy. Statistics show that the wealthy of this country pay way more than their share. Democrats and liberals must recognize that the way to improve our countrys economy is to provide incentive for hard work and entrepreneurial spirit, not to penalize and tax it into oblivion.
The financial data used in compiling the above was pulled from the final analysis reports from the IRS for the year of 2005, the latest year available. A copy of the report can be found in the archive section at www.politibyte.com or the IRS website.
** This quoted text is from politibyte.com **
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