Picture of the day:
Today’s stuff:
Tax time, I can relax, ours?... done! We even got a refund, the first time in many years. Every year I
remember an eye opening time. We were stationed in GITMO, my ‘Commander in Chief & President', was Mr. Richard Nixon.
It wasn’t a law, but sort of an expected rule, as president of the USA it was a practice to make his Tax return public. Our present president is an exception, he promised todo that, but later refused. Anyway, Sherry and I, lower-income enlisted folk, under Nixon’s command paid twice more in taxes than the President of the USA! He had paid a whopping $750.00 in federal Income tax. His salary was $100,000 a year, ours, less than $6,000. That blew my mind.
I am very sure he paid the right amount with deductions and loopholes, therefore the Commander-in-Chief of the Army still paid less tax than a Private in that Army.
In my opinion our tax system is NOT fair, but we still live in a GREAT country. I would like to see a straight 10% income tax on EVERYONE who ears over $50K. Maybe a Federal Sales tax of 15% on everything purchased, no exceptions or loopholes. Get rid of most of the IRS and all income tax. It would sure make it simpler for businesses that pay employees and forget withholding taxes.
With the 15% fed sales tax, when buying a car for $5000 we pay $750 tax. When the Billionaire buys a Yacht for $500,000, he pays $75,000 sales tax.
Yeah I dream a lot. I jump thru the hoops every year and fill out our tax forms. I am one cheap dude. One of my son’s pays $250 to have his done, the other might do his own.
OF COURSE I do not KNOW, but I hear there are some Billionaires who pay zero in income taxes, because their income is in stocks/bonds etc and taxed different than me. Our tax system is employee driven, not investment.
My mind will no longer hold things together, so I get very lost in IRS language. I have read about 100 of the nearly 7,000 pages of the tax code. It actually goes to 75,000 pages when the explanations and directions are included.
I won’t even try to guess the # of presidents and congressmen who have read even 10% of that code. HOWEVER, I guarantee there are lawyers who have read enough to find the loopholes, as they say. They get paid good money to do that. LOL
Ok ,I have said too much, but get your taxes filed, pay what Uncle Sam says pay, so my SS check will arrive next month. Oh yes, and THANK YOU very much!
Nite Shipslog
PS: I didn’t bitch too much did I?
Thanks for stopping by the Shipslog
I am just glad another year is over!
ReplyDeleteI have a clever system. Why not hand over all our earnings to the taxman and he decides what to give us to live on? Simple. No tax returns each year. No fuss. No paperwork. No loopholes.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
Thankfully, I no longer pay taxes, my only income is Social Security. I do agree our tax system isn't fair, it favors the rich. I'm not rich and never got any of those tax loops. I rarely got much of a refund either,
ReplyDeleteLike Ma, we're on SS ...ie, exempt from having to file. All those years of working for CPA firms paid off, but man. I'd hate to work in that environment again. Too many hours, too much stress.
ReplyDeleteI did a little research and found relevant tax information from the Tax Foundation Website. It gets updated on a regular basis and the most current information is from the 2021 Tax year. While lots of people feel like the "rich" don't pay their fair share this data actually shows that the "rich" are actually paying the lions share of federal income tax. The rich pay a much higher tax rate and much higher % of their income in taxes. A summary of what I found below:
ReplyDeleteHigh-Income Taxpayers Paid the Highest Average Income Tax Rates
In 2021, taxpayers with higher incomes paid much higher average income tax rates than taxpayers with lower incomes.
The bottom half of taxpayers, or taxpayers making under $46,637, faced an average income tax rate of 3.3 percent. As household income increases, average income tax rates rise. For example, taxpayers with AGI between the 10th and 5th percentiles ($169,800 and $252,840) paid an average income tax rate of 14.3 percent—four times the rate paid by taxpayers in the bottom half.
The top 1 percent of taxpayers (AGI of $682,577 and above) paid the highest average income tax rate of 25.93 percent—nearly eight times the rate faced by the bottom half of taxpayers.
High-Income Taxpayers Paid the Majority of Federal Income Taxes
In 2021, the bottom half of taxpayers earned 10.4 percent of total AGI and paid 2.3 percent of all federal individual income taxes. The top 1 percent earned 26.3 percent of total AGI and paid 45.8 percent of all federal income taxes.
In all, the top 1 percent of taxpayers accounted for more income taxes paid than the bottom 90 percent combined. The top 1 percent of taxpayers paid more than $1 trillion in income taxes while the bottom 90 percent paid $531 billion.
Me not being rich I think we maybe should be appreciative of what the rich pay in taxes vs thinking they don't pay enough. Its always easy to think the other guy should do more. Just some thoughts from a poor guy in SC.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the posts Jack. Always interesting and makes me think.
ReplyDelete