What do you define as paying your "fair share" of taxes?

according to the data released just today, the top 1% pay 39.4% of all taxes.

top 5% pay 59.5% the estimated top 5% make 175,000 a year

the bottom 50% pay 3%

and this was all AFTER the tax cuts. Seems pretty fair if not overkill. if you walk into a room with 100 people and ask who is the richest the one guy would pay 40% of the entire bill.

the "rich" everyone wants to pay their fair share according to them is 200,000 however 2 out of 3 of those that make this amount are small business owners. Small business owners employ a majority of employees so raising taxes on small business owners end up hurting the middle class when the owners cut jobs.

That's a very difficult question! Should the rich pay extra? That doesn't sound fair. Should the poor be exempt? That doesn't sound fair either, but you can't get blood out of a rock.

A flat tax seems to be the most fair way to impose taxes, but I don't think it makes any real difference if government continues to spend and grow at the current levels. If we reduce government, and therefore reduce taxes, the current system won't seem so bad.

It's not really about how we collect the taxes, it's about how much we spend!

Well I think what is fair for one person may not be fair to another. My thought is 10% anything more then that is excessive. The idea rich people don’t pay their fair share goes along the line of the tax loop holes and tax shelters. If you look at a working man his percentage of the tax burden is higher then say a wealthy man who can afford Tax shelters. I like the idea of a flat tax, but the federal government looked at it as if they would be loosening revenue if it was under 19%. We are all over taxed and it has created a monstrous government that only lives to serve itself to raise more taxes. Look at property taxes. They appraise your home on an ever increasing scale that increases their revenue. I believe you home should be appraised by a third party real-estate agency and not the local Taxing office. Maybe then it may be fair.

Well, you're asking us to define "fair". And that's a difficult task. The dictionary defines fair as "free from bias, dishonesty, or injustice." But what does that mean with regards to taxation? Is there a bias towards the poor, by making the rich pay at a higher rate? Or do the rich employ dishonesty, masking what they truly make? And why should our system be founded on INCOME? What, exactly, is a "fair share"?

I happen to believe that government is a service, provided due to a collective demand for security and order, as stated in the Declaration of Independence, "they [men] are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." In order to provide these services the government must have income, and that income is seen as taxation. So who should pay what? Well, it doesn't make any sense to pay for a service that you aren't using. If I pay a landscaping company to mow my yard I don't shrug my shoulders and forget about it if nobody ever shows up and the yard stays unmowed. Your fair share of taxes is the same way, you should pay for the services you're using. Some services are universal and used by nearly everyone (like roads), some are universal and while not used by everyone must be available to everyone (such as courts), and most are simply excessive and could more easily be provided by private industry. It all comes down to the question of what should the government be providing us? Well, the only things I think the government should provide are those services that secure our freedoms and liberty, such as an army, a system of courts, and such necessary items that private industry has no interest in (such as certain types of fundamental scientific research). Everything else could be privatized, and you would only pay for what you used. Nobody would be asked to pay without receiving, or receive without paying. The actual amount collected by such a government would fall to almost nothing. Yearly taxes could be a fixed single amount payed by each person. Yes, that's right, fair means that EVERYONE pays the EXACT SAME AMOUNT! Obviously this could only work if the government were so small that such a tax would be a pittance. In a more realistic sense, I think that fair means that everybody pays at the same RATE. A progessive tax rate is immoral. It says that the government has the right to take more from you simply because you have more to take. That is unjust, and hence unfair. I do not think that taxation should be based on income, I think it should be based on how many services you actually receive. But quantifying that without near total privatization is near impossible. In our current system we must use income, as it is quantifiable. And hence, the only truly "fair" system would be one where everybody pays the exact same percentage of their income. Some will receive more services than they payed for, others less. Overall it will balance out. But to do otherwise is to show bias based on income, and is therefore unfair.

the wealthy pay a decrease share than the middle type. some quite have faith that the wealthy pay in accordance to the federal income tax scale. final three hundred and sixty 5 days I paid 8% greater in federal taxes than the richest guy in the international, Warren Buffet. I desire they could start up a flat tax of 8% coupled with a intake tax of three%. Any enjoyed ones income under $20K according to working grownup does not pay the 8% yet nevertheless will pay into the gadget by potential of potential of the three% intake tax.

Flat tax of 15 %...for everyone. Keep deductions for morgage interest rates, education expenses, healthcare costs, ira/retirement contributions, and charity gifts.

Constitutional amendment to make Congress put on the national ballot ANY increase in taxes, or thier pay !

Heck I just wish they'd simplify the entire tax code get rid of the loopholes and the big one for me is EVERYONE pays the exact same percentage especially on SS tax no $90K cap if we did that Social Security would be liquid for generations to come

If it were up to me the US would have a so-called 'Flat Tax'. It would be just this simple: Corporate or personal, there would be NO DEDUCTIONS. PERIOD. How much did you make last year? Don't care what, or who, or why you spent the money just how much did you make? If you made $18,451.25 come January 1, 2008 you cut a check to Uncle Sam for $1,845.00. If you made $16,899,345,123.23 then you owe 1,689,934,512.00. Notice, I rounded down.....

I think that the rich should pay at least the same percentage as the average American. As is stands today, there are loopholes making it easy not to pay taxes. Bill Gates once admitted that if he worked it right, he could pay no taxes. It is the same for corporations. Many don't pay any taxes.

I am against progressive taxation as it does not work. The Democrats continually fail to see that their efforts to tax the wealthy disproportionally to services used by the wealthy only result in lost jobs and higher costs on goods and services.

I think the national sales tax is an interesting proposition, as it taxes people on what they actually purchase. It also would get rid of the outmoded institution the IRS has become.