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2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumThe Nation: Vox’s Tax Calculator Is Wildly Misleading—So We Made a Better One
Last week, Vox published an article titled This simple calculator tells you how each presidential candidates tax plan affects you. It couldnt be more manipulative.
Voxs calculator, despite its catchy headline, does not show how your overall economic situation might change under each candidates policy agenda. What it presents is a number Vox calls your tax liability, which includes things you would never think of as part of your tax billlike the payroll taxes your employer pays on your wage or the tax you pay on a bottle of wine. Using Voxs approach, which draws on a narrow, but largely correct, analysis from the Tax Policy Center (TPC), simply getting a raise from your boss would look like a larger tax billbad news. As a result, Voxs calculator overwhelmingly favors Trump and Cruz, while suggesting that Sanderss plan would have a negative effect on disposable income for the majority of Americans.
This is all a bit misleading. Final take-home paythe amount of money you get to spend after the government takes its share and you have paid the cost of health insurancehas an exponentially larger effect on your life than your tax rate. Contrary to what is implied in Voxs calculator, TPC finds that under the Sanders plan, middle-income the take-home pay of earners with employer-provided healthcare increases.
Taxes, in other words, dont exist in a vacuumwhat the government does with those taxes matters quite a bit.
...
Voxs calculator, despite its catchy headline, does not show how your overall economic situation might change under each candidates policy agenda. What it presents is a number Vox calls your tax liability, which includes things you would never think of as part of your tax billlike the payroll taxes your employer pays on your wage or the tax you pay on a bottle of wine. Using Voxs approach, which draws on a narrow, but largely correct, analysis from the Tax Policy Center (TPC), simply getting a raise from your boss would look like a larger tax billbad news. As a result, Voxs calculator overwhelmingly favors Trump and Cruz, while suggesting that Sanderss plan would have a negative effect on disposable income for the majority of Americans.
This is all a bit misleading. Final take-home paythe amount of money you get to spend after the government takes its share and you have paid the cost of health insurancehas an exponentially larger effect on your life than your tax rate. Contrary to what is implied in Voxs calculator, TPC finds that under the Sanders plan, middle-income the take-home pay of earners with employer-provided healthcare increases.
Taxes, in other words, dont exist in a vacuumwhat the government does with those taxes matters quite a bit.
...
more: http://www.thenation.com/article/voxs-tax-calculator-is-wildly-misleading-so-we-made-a-better-one/
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The Nation: Vox’s Tax Calculator Is Wildly Misleading—So We Made a Better One (Original Post)
Cheese Sandwich
Apr 2016
OP
Avalon Sparks
(2,565 posts)1. Wonder why no one even tried it
Cheese Sandwich
(9,086 posts)2. Tax calculators are actually pretty boring when they're done well.
Avalon Sparks
(2,565 posts)3. Only lets you see a few articles
I clicked on it a couple times, to get it to load. Site message said I had to subscribe (fee)
Tried on my iPad today, gave me three free articles for my email address
Vox sad I would owe 14,000 ( which I knew immediately was bullshit)
My own calculation estimated I'd save 850 bucks or so
The calculator said I'd save $457.
The difference being the calculator doesn't know the exact amount I pay for employee health insurance.