duke
Senior Forumite
Mr. Tepid
Posts: 3,706
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Post by duke on Nov 7, 2010 14:41:07 GMT -5
Tax System Favors Wealth Over Work Sunday 07 November 2010 by: Gerald E. Scorse, t r u t h o u t | News Analysis Tea Partiers rage against taxes and say they’re too high. Wrong, says billionaire Warren Buffett: on the rich, they’re too low. The tax code holds the answer to this standoff, and the code backs Buffett. Taxes may be the bane of the Tea Party, but they’re a relative boon for the wealthy. Let’s look at some of the ways America’s tax system keeps Warren Buffett’s fortune in Warren Buffet’s hands. The major vehicle is George W. Bush’s 15 percent levy on long-term capital gains - the lowest since FDR’s first term - and on corporate dividends. The top 1 percent of US households owns nearly 40 percent of all privately held stock, from which the dividends flow. Similarly, the super-rich get more than half their income from capital gains, as documented by tax expert David Cay Johnston in his book “Perfectly Legal.” In the meantime, for the working middle-class, the tax rate on wages is 25 percent. Taxing income from wealth at little more than half the rate of income from work: it’s the perfect recipe to make sure that Warren Buffett (and all the Buffett wannabes) pay effective tax rates far below what their incomes suggest. <snip> www.truth-out.org/tax-system-favors-wealth-over-work64768
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Post by daworm on Nov 7, 2010 16:30:18 GMT -5
It would be simple enough to fix that. Variations of the fair tax and flat tax proposals have addressed this. But neither side wants to even think about it.
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Post by frayne56 on Nov 8, 2010 7:50:57 GMT -5
The IRS and Tax Lobby likes the tax code just the way it is, confusing and convoluted and will fight tooth and nail against any attempts to simplify the tax code, which at present could fill six bibles and is always in a state of constant flux.
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Post by el Gusano on Nov 8, 2010 11:07:03 GMT -5
It would fill more than six Bibles. Bibles are only about 1000 pages long each. The tax code was 16,845 pages long in 2006. (Of course, the print sizes might be different.)
They can find something on anyone if they want to. I'm sure the tax code is like the USDA and OSHA regulations that are impossible to comply with everything.
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