How many people actually pay the top tax rate of 35%??

[kentuck]

Last edited Sun Aug 19, 2012, 05:47 PM - Edit history (1)

And what good would it do to raise the rate if nobody pays it??

Mitt Romney says he pays about 13% on his taxable income, which his assets have been estimated in the press at about $250 million. My guess would be that it is closer to $2 billion. The guy has a lot of secret cache.

Paul Ryan just made public his two years of tax returns and he is paying about 16%. His assets are about $500 thousand a year or more.

How legitimate is the argument on the right that people are paying too much in taxes? Judging from these two folks running for the Republican nomination, they are getting over like fat rats. They are not paying too much in taxes.

They talk about closing loopholes and both Parties admit that there are loopholes that should be closed. However, they say they can't close them unless cuts are made elsewhere? Why do they have to wait for something else to happen before they do what needs to be done now?

Taxes are an issue in this election. If debt and deficit are issues, taxes must be an issue. Much of the deficit is caused by too little revenue to cover the extravagant spending Congress has grown accustomed to. The question is: How much government do we need? Do we need Medicare? Do we need Defense spending? Do we need unemployment insurance? Do we need loopholes for billionaires?

Taxes are a big issue in this election and Mitt Romney's secrecy only magnifies the severity of the problem. We don't need $5 trillion more in tax cuts for people like Mitt Romney. That is for certain.

(Edited for clarity and accuracy.)

[AnotherMcIntosh]

1. The Wall-Street Crowd isn't paying too much in taxes.

None of them pay the top tax rate of 35%. None.

[RevStPatrick]

2. No.

His income is NOT $250 million, or 2 billion.
Those are his assets.
His income is the interest he earns on that money.
Big difference!

Not that I am at all interested in defending Mr. Rmoney, but if you are going to make an argument, please get it right.

[kentuck]

4. Are you a real Rev?

[RevStPatrick]

6. What does that have to do with anything?

Are you implying that a "real" reverend would not be interested in the truth?

But I did notice that you edited your OP.
Good for that.

[kentuck]

8. Just checking ....

to see if you would get your bowels in an uproar and get all defensive. I wasn't implying anything. I was just curious if you were a real Reverend? Thanks for the answer.

[RegieRocker]

3. Many people pay this tax rate!

However they are all making less than 250 k a year.

[TheFarseer]

5. people with high salaries

over $388,350 in wages after deducting itemized or standard deductions and exemptions for dependents and self. Of course people that get paid in stock options won't be touched by this. People who live off dividends and cap gains won't be touched by this. They pay at 5 or 15% on that. A poor schnook with a savings account pays just like it's income from wages but investments in stock etc pay the 5-15%. You figure that out!

[hfojvt]

7. I am guessing that Ryan is paying it

But only on the last little bit of income.

It does good to raise it, IMO, because Ryan, for example is already using every loophole he can at $500,000. So if he steals more money, that will be taxed at the top rate. Which makes for a bigger incentive to not steal more if the top rate is higher.

Romney, on the other hand, is not paying the top rate - because for some odd reason capital gains and dividends are not taxed the same as wages. They are taxed at much lower rates. Some of that came from the Bush tax cuts of 2003, when Bush pushed for a 0% tax rate on dividends. Senate Democrats made him settle for only cuttng the tax rate in half, and that bill still only passed the Senate by 51-50 with EVERY democrat voting against it. Even Lieberputz.

The trouble with putting this cat back in the bag is that some fools out there with $300 in dividends think they are getting some huge benefit and would scream bloody murder if their own taxes went up by $30. There were some 6.5 million households with income under $50,000 who had dividend and capital gains income, and almost 14 million with income under $100,000 (in 2005)

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/hfojvt/81

[KurtNYC]

9. 1) We don't know what rate Romney pays

and we should stop pretending like we do.

2) The hunt for Romney's returns is about Romney likely committing voter fraud, off-shoring assets and influence peddling, NOT what his rate is.

[kentuck]

11. Why is that important?

[DonRedwood]

10. They TAKE 36% out of my check every month

but I don't know what the actual taxes are. we do pay an extra $600 in taxes for being domestic partners instead of married.