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Half of Americans pay no Federal Income Tax - Page 2

post #51 of 61
4/13/10 at 12:51am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Trav McGee View Post
Thank you for this, I've been reading the strips for an hour.
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post #52 of 61
4/13/10 at 2:23am
So, I don't get it - was DerekT saying people who earn under fifty grand a year are moochers or what?
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post #53 of 61
4/13/10 at 2:44am
Yes. Yes he was.
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post #54 of 61
4/13/10 at 9:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by kungfumonkeyMike View Post
Wait... when you say "you haven't paid" you don't mean that you have been able to bring your taxable income down to 0$ do you? Do you just mean that you never have to pay MORE than what is already deducted from your paychecks (i.e., amount that you've already paid which is reported on your W-2s)? And if that is what you are saying, that is semi-meaningless, as we have no idea what the government has already collected. How much you are able to bring you taxable income down would be much more interesting.

And if you do mean that you actually bring your taxable income from $140K to 0... what crazy shit are you doing to pull that off?

We just take the standard deductions. I look at the list of things you can deduct on a 1040, and can usually only make it 1/2 to 2/3 of the way there, then just file a 1040A with the standard deductions.
Sorry for the confusion, we have taxes deducted during the year, and my wife and I claim standard deductions on our W-4s; we're not defrauding the gubmint. It just always struck me as odd that we make good money and have very few deductions (and no kids, which are usually big deductions) yet we've gotten money back on our federal returns for years. I wonder how much is due to having a good accountant. And I wonder how much we'll have to make before we start breaking even, or owing money, come April 15th.
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post #55 of 61
4/13/10 at 9:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by nekkerbee View Post
Sorry for the confusion, we have taxes deducted during the year, and my wife and I claim standard deductions on our W-4s; we're not defrauding the gubmint. It just always struck me as odd that we make good money and have very few deductions (and no kids, which are usually big deductions) yet we've gotten money back on our federal returns for years. I wonder how much is due to having a good accountant. And I wonder how much we'll have to make before we start breaking even, or owing money, come April 15th.
The gubmint deducts money based on how many deductions you are claiming (in your case, that seems like 1 each) and how much you are projected to make in a year. If you make the same amount every week, you'll always be close to even. If you get a raise, even a COLA, partway through the year, things may get tricky. If you receive some exorbitant bonuses, they'll probably tax the living crap out of them, but then you'll get it back.

I ask the government to withhold an additional $10-$20 dollars per week so I can guarantee that I won't owe when I file.
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post #56 of 61
4/14/10 at 1:45am
Thread Starter 
I'm going to make this quick and then I'm going to fuck off forever.

I applogize for making the "free lunch" quib. I also applogize for sounding like I was suggesting that people making $50,000 or less are freeloading off the country.

Its just the 50% number, its too high. It probably going to be higher as the decade moves on and in general I doubt the country can keep going with more than half of people not paying taxes. Something is going to give.

Please feel free to rip on me for being a giantic asshole.

I'm fucking off now.
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post #57 of 61
4/14/10 at 10:12am
Jon sums it up beautifully as usual...
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post #58 of 61
4/14/10 at 11:27am
There's a great article on this in the New York times. It gets a little into the weeds of tax policy, but it explains it all rather nicely.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/14/bu...er=rss&emc=rss
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post #59 of 61
4/14/10 at 1:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DerekT View Post
I'm going to make this quick and then I'm going to fuck off forever.

I applogize for making the "free lunch" quib. I also applogize for sounding like I was suggesting that people making $50,000 or less are freeloading off the country.

Its just the 50% number, its too high. It probably going to be higher as the decade moves on and in general I doubt the country can keep going with more than half of people not paying taxes. Something is going to give.
INCOME taxes, Derek. They still pay all the other taxes. And the reason the number is high is that people have been slipping down the ladder of economic mobility.
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post #60 of 61
4/14/10 at 1:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Prankster View Post
INCOME taxes, Derek. They still pay all the other taxes. And the reason the number is high is that people have been slipping down the ladder of economic mobility.
The other taxes are mostly local and state. Federal taxes are primarily derived from income for individuals.. but that's not the point of the initial article.

You need to focus on the 'credits' portion of the discussion. Things like the $8,000 home buyer tax credit will erase what someone would owe, thus making them not owe taxes. How many people took advantage of that program? Let's also not forget the incentives for going green that was part of the 'stimulus' bills. I think most people have forgotten that hundreds of billions of the trillion dollar stimulus bill was tax credits.

from the original article.

Quote:
The 47 percent number is not wrong. The stimulus programs of the last two years — the first one signed by President George W. Bush, the second and larger one by President Obama — have increased the number of households that receive enough of a tax credit to wipe out their federal income tax liability.
ETA.

Oh and the funny thing is? The GOP were the ones that fought to put the tax credits in and bitched there weren't more.
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post #61 of 61
4/14/10 at 2:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Rain Dog View Post
Awesome. The picture is plain as day; it's just not covered on the news.
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