I posted a few days ago about the singularly un-Christian tweet from’ America’s pastor’ Rick Warren, in which he transmitted yet again that stupid meme that 50% of Americans pay NO taxes!! It is of course false on it’s face, since there is no way to avoid taxes. What is true is that 50% of Americans pay no Federal Income taxes.
I just visited a site new to me, and one I look forward to visiting again, where Donald Marron takes a moment to tell us who those 50% are, and the reasons why they pay no federal income taxes..
The number one reason should come as no surprise. It’s because they have low incomes. As my colleague Bob Williams notes:
“A couple with two children earning less than $26,400 . . . their $11,600 standard deduction and four exemptions of $3,700 each reduce their taxable income to zero.”
Low incomes (or, if you prefer, the standard deduction and personal exemptions) account for fully half of the people who pay no federal income tax.
The second reason is that for many senior citizens, Social Security benefits are exempt from federal income taxes. That accounts for about 22% of the people who pay no federal income tax.
The third reason is that America uses the tax code to provide benefits to low-income families, particularly those with children. Taken together, the earned income tax credit, the child credit, and the childcare credit account for about 15% of the people who pay no federal income tax.
Taken together, those three factors — incomes that fall below the standard deduction and personal exemptions; the exemption for most Social Security benefits; and tax benefits aimed at low-income families and children — account for almost 90% of the Americans who pay no federal income tax.
Of course, they’re also probably lefty pinko lazy gay communist liberals. Or so suggests ‘Pastor’ Warren.
You can have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, or democracy. But you cannot have both.
Whatever Works 
The actual numbers are a set (32% – 40%) that varies on a yearly basis. Overall the bottom 50% pay on average 3% of the total federal personal income tax revenues. Conversely, the top 1% pays (33% – 40%) of the total federal personal income tax revenues, again a set that varies on a yearly basis.
LikeLike
I for one have had it up the wazoo and them damn weenie whiney commie, socialist, picko, liberal, kenya born President lovin, tree huggin homos who aren’t payin their fair share.
Them leeches making less than $26,400 a year don’t need to be having no damn chidren. Take them kids and ship them to Samolia. They can starve there just as well as here and they won’t be a burden to my tax dollars. And tax them old geezers sociable security too. Them damn old farts are just a drain on my economy and my hard earned tax dollars.
You can sign me,
A patriotic, gun-totin’, flag waving, bible thumpin’, fuck the poor, Tea Bagger
God bless Brother Warren and the US of A
LikeLike
And they’re always whining about wanting food and stuff too. And jobs – as if they’d ever turn up anyway! 🙂
LikeLike
All the sarcasm aside, and totally in opposition to the point you hoped to make, most of what you said regarding the poor is based upon truth or would provide benefit to the country as a whole, possibly the world if you believe the Warmists.
All the crap aside, these people are the ones receiving the entitlements that are a large part of bankrupting both state and federal government and these are ones paying no federal income tax.
So “paying their fair share” might not be the best rallying cry for their supporters. 😉
I’ve got little or problem with charity, but let’s all be honest about it being charity. Let’s also all be honest about the Liberals wanting to take by fiat other people’s wealth to provide that charity.
LikeLike
But jonolan – my brother, who is seriously wealthy, collects SS and has Medicare just like me – plus he brags that he never pays any income taxes and hasn’t for years. He is by the way a conservative and a big time donor to the Republicans. And he is legion.
His wife, who never worked a day in her life, also received SS (more than me who worked 45 years) because they owned a good-sized business and he put her on the books at a high salary.
My SS is not charity – it’s insurance and I paid into it for 45 years. And, like my brother, I too am legion.
LikeLike
Yes you, he, and she did and don’t begrudge you one dime of it. I commented in your previous post that SS should never have been considered an “entitlement” – PC-speak for charity – and only was considered so because the federal government decided it was going to borrow all or most of the SS fund.
LikeLike
Still don’t get why you call it a ‘charity’. Does SS not ‘promote the general welfare’?
As for my brother, just wanted to be sure he was counted among “these people are the ones receiving the entitlements that are a large part of bankrupting both state and federal government and these are ones paying no federal income tax.”
But I’m glad it’s okay I get my SS – I’d be on the street wihtout it! 🙂
LikeLike
I don’t call social security “charity.”
The argument of “promote the general welfare” is specious though. Basing the rightness of a course of government action solely upon that criteria has long been held to be one of the faster roads to tyranny and a tyranny of the worst sort, that tyranny being “for our own good.”
LikeLike
Was the above real?…….
Or….
Memorex?
LikeLike
Funny memorex (from a fellow Floridian)
LikeLike
Ms. Holland ,
I get statements from SS showing my lifetime contributions to SS. You should also have gotten some while you were working . If you worked for 45 years, that should add up to a lot . If you calculate what you receive per year now, you should be able to calculate when you have used up the money you put into the glorious pot . Add in the generous interest the treasury has paid to you on your money and you should get a date as to when your money is gone .
Since you paid in longer than a lot of retirees, you are living off of your own money , I’m sure for now . Most people will collect 3 or 4 times what they put in . That has to be made up by their fellow citizens.
LikeLike
Alan,
That’s the nature of all insurance plans, which is what SS – really SSI as in Social Security Insurance – is.From a ethical standpoint there’s no culpability that can be associated with ending up using more than you paid in.
From a practical standpoint however, that is part of why social security will fail relatively soon. The ratio to payers to payees has dramatically dropped as our life expectancies has increased.
LikeLike
Jonolan ,
” security will fail relatively soon ”
No one here besides you and me , actually believe that or are willing to take action towards it, other than raising taxes on the evil people .
LikeLike
True; but if they meant raising the SSI contribution that people make as opposed to other taxes, they’d not be completely wrong. When an insurance system can’t even break even it has to raise premiums.
The real problem and cognitive interrupt is that they’d accept that for SSI bur go crazy when its health insurance.
LikeLike
Well…okay. That’s fine, but what action would you take about it? If it’s privatizing it, then I’m afraid I really won’t ever see very much of it. The whole point of a private insurance company — and I should know, because I work for one — is to maximize the payments you receive from customers and minimize what you pay out to them, so that you can make a profit.
LikeLike
I’d give the SSI trust administers more leeway in their investment so that they weren’t so tightly tied to US government debt instruments.
Understand that the government saw all that taxpayers’ money that they couldn’t touch and promptly found a way to touch it. They built a special security – debt instrument – for the SSI trust to invest in and them set it up so that was SSI’s primary investment.
LikeLike
30 years ago, we did a fix on Social Security; contributions were raised and they began the process of moving the age to 67 for full benefits. For my age, it was 65 plus 10 months. In about 10 years, it will in fact be 67.
And it’s time to do another one. I don’t htink we can bring the age up over 67, but we should adjust the cap. It’s been something like $108K for decades. That needs to go up.
Alan, I will likely take out of hte system more than I put in (which was used to support the generaton before me), but as pino pointed out, that’s how insurance works. Millions of people die before htey take out a dime and some of live on and collect for however long we live.
And once the baby boom bump is over (about 30 years?), SS should be more equitable in terms of young v old.
LikeLike
SSI won’t be around then, Moe. Look at the demographics Those coming up now are more and more those who don’t contribute enough to make the system work – yes, this ties in with with another of your posts.
Something went horribly wrong and the productive have either chosen to- or have been forced to by circumstance not breed, whereas the nonproductive have been encouraged to do so. That, in the longer run, dooms SSI.
LikeLike
That’s one of the reasons why immigration is so important. Demographics indeed would doom us given our low birth rate. We need to maintain a regular flow of immigrants, who are almost always young – and many of them will have more children than those already established here. At least for a while. And then we need the next flood of immigrants.
When I was a kid, it was the Italians who were considered to be ‘the breeders’ as you put it. People found it quite untidy, my dears, all those noisy dirty children.
SS will make it if we can get over the bump and if we are realisti about reforms.
LikeLike
My Lord. Have you been to Ohio, Moe? I live in Hillsboro which is a small town and redneckville all the way, and these people have NO problem breeding. I saw a woman at the supermarket yesterday with 6 kids and she paid with food stamps – seriously.
Also, I remember when John Hagee said that the we have aborted all the people who will pay into S.S. It seems to me it is the opposite. I think too many people and too many kids will bankrupt this nation faster than the other way around. It is the poor that have babies, and it is poor babies that turn into welfare cases and criminals.
Also, I have to disagree with your statement about immigration. I have lived most of my life in Texas where there are immigrants, both legal and illegal. And I tell you that these mexican immigrants are not paying taxes as you may think. The take jobs under the table – often undercutting american workers – and send the bulk of their earnings back to Mexico.
That is double jeopardy.
Anyway, just thought I would give my 2 cents.
LikeLike
Hey Sam, always nice to see you. Your point about the poor is of course very true – for some reason they seem to have more kids. It’s perhaps lack of education or role models growing up, whatver, they do have more kids.
Haggee and his crowed have their underwear tied up iln a permanent knot about abortion, about ‘life’, but their concern seems to stop in the delivery room. Hypocrites.
I’ll defer to you re Mexicans in TX. But remember, even if the immigrants themselves are working under the table, if they stay, their kids will later be in real jobs, paying real taxes.
LikeLike
Possibly true, Moe.
It is always nice to come by and see what’s on with you. 🙂
LikeLike
You guys crack me up…….
Look the GOPer’s want to TAKE your money and benefits and give them to their friends…..
Simple……
And while they ship the immigrants back home…..
They’ll take THEIR mony too….
Simple….
LikeLike
Do you have any evidence to back that up, or are you merely suffering from diarrhea of the mouth?
I do not dispute that the GOP is composed almost entirely of greedy crooks, but…
They want to take illegal immigrants money? Really?
What money?
Tsk tsk tsk.
LikeLike