As Bush tries to end the income tax and move us to a salary tax ( as noted in the Newsweek article), we had a nice chart in the NYT(that did not make it to the internet) showing that our tax system is "progressive" - but just barely - and that was before Bush tax cuts for the wealthy (and the author does not go into hidden investment/capital gain income that the rich never report - most of the times legally do not have to report - to the US Government).-=the chart would look like this:
...............................................................Group takes this
........Percent of FIT paid...%of all Fed Tax pd...%of Nat'l Income
Top 1% in income..36%..............23%.............17%
Top 5% in income..57%..............40%.............31%
Top 20% in Income.83%..............69%.............59%
Bottom 80%........17%..............31%.............41%
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/11/weekinreview/11boxa.html April 11, 2004
Time to Pay Taxes, but Who Is Really Paying?
By MATTHEW MILLER the Center for American Progress.
<snip>Conservatives often cite these statistics: the top 5 percent of taxpayers pay 57 percent of federal income taxes, the top 1 percent 36 percent, and the bottom 80 percent a trifling 17 percent.
But this argument ignores the payroll tax, which finances Social Security, as well as excise taxes on things like liquor or tobacco. These take their biggest bite, proportionally, from lower-income Americans. Income tax will account this year for 42 percent of federal revenue; the payroll tax, 41 percent. If you count the payroll tax paid by employers (which economists generally agree comes out of workers' wages), four in five workers pay more in payroll taxes than income taxes.
The chart at right shows what happens when you consider this data: the top 1 percent of taxpayers earn 17 percent of the income and pay 23 percent of federal taxes; the top 5 percent earn 31 percent of the income and pay 40 percent of the taxes; the bottom 80 percent make 41 percent of the income and pay 31 percent of the taxes. In other words, the tax system is modestly progressive.
MOST CORPORATIONS DON’T PAY INCOME TAX PER GAO
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d04358.pdf Over the next week, millions of individual Americans will settle up with Uncle Sam – and most corporations will skip out. A new GAO report reveals that from 1996-2000 more than 60% of U.S. corporations paid no taxes whatsoever. During the Bush Administration, things have gone from bad to worse as "corporate tax receipts have shrunk markedly as a share of overall federal revenue." Last year "they had fallen to just 7.4% of overall federal receipts, the lowest rate since 1983, and the second-lowest rate since 1934." Even corporations which do pay taxes don't pay much. Although the corporate tax rate is theoretically 35%, in 2000 "94% of U.S. corporations reported tax liabilities amounting to less than 5% of their total income." According to Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) the discrepancy can be explained by "massive tax avoidance, and perhaps in many cases tax evasion."
AND CORPORATE NON-PAYMENT IS REWARDED UNDER BUSH WITH FEWER CORPORATE AUDITS: Despite dwindling revenues from corporate taxes during the Bush Administration, "America's largest corporations are less likely to face an IRS audit this year than at any time in the past decade." Over the last four years "audits of corporation have fallen 26%." Meanwhile, over the same time period, "audits of individual tax returns have climbed 37%." The result is "not only unfair to average taxpayers, but is costly to the government because corporate audits tend to recover far more money than individual audits."
WHILE BUSH/CHAMBER OF COMMERCE LIES AND EXCUSES CORPORATE NON-PAYMENT AS REFLECTING LACK OF PROFITS
http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/04/01/biz_audits01.html : The Chamber of Commerce assertion that pay taxes didn't make a profit is refuted by an analysis by American Progress Senior Economist Christian Weller showing Corporate tax payments have dropped as a percentage of corporate profits.
MEANWHILE BUSH -WITH CORPORATE MEDIA SAYING NOTHING AGAINST THE IDEA - PUSH FOR MORE TAX CUTS FOR CORPORATIONS
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55868-2004Apr6.html :The House of Representatives transportation bill, if enacted, has corporate tax breaks that would cost the nation $12.8 billion over five years. Worse, the tax provisions would further subsidize the "offshoring" of American jobs. Under the House bill, "multinational companies with extensive offshore operations to fully use foreign tax credits to offset their tax liability."
AS BUSH MOVES HIS TAX AGENDA TO REMOVE FROM ANY TAX THE 50% OF RICH AND CORPORATE INCOME THAT COMES FROM INVESTMENT AND CAPITAL GAIN - AS WE MOVE FROM AN INCOME TAX TO A SALARY TAX.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4660655 / If Bush successfully enacts his tax agenda – lowing taxes on capital gains, creating two new income-sheltering investment plans and eliminating the estate tax – "the income tax will become a misnomer – it will really be a salary tax." That means average Americans would shoulder an increasing percentage of the tax burden. Why? Salary accounts for 80% of total income for most Americans but less than half of total income for the top 1%. By eliminating the estate tax and the tax on capital income, Bush would "create a new class of landed aristocrats who could inherit billions tax-free, invest the money, watch it compound tax-free and hand it down tax-free to their heirs."
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