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Tim
Lv 6
Tim asked in Politics & GovernmentElections · 9 years ago

What is a "fair share"?

I am always hearing this from democrats, usually in the context that the rich should pay more. However, I have never heard what a “fair share” is. So, I ask that question now; given the facts I will lay out below, that is a fair share of the income tax burden for each class or income group?

Here is what I used. I started with the 2009 Statistics of Income (SOI) produced by the Internal Revenue Service. You can find them at irs.gov.

Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) – income before deductions, exemptions, and credits.

Tax Liability (TL) – the amount of tax actually paid (ie – the check you write to the government)

Effective tax rate (ETR) – TL / AGI

Lower class – AGI below $75k

Lower Middle class – AGI between $75k and $200k

Upper Middle class – AGI between $200k and $1m

Upper class – AGI over $1m

ETR for each class

Lower – 4.84%

Lower Middle – 10.49%

Upper Middle – 20.75%

Upper – 24.42%

Percent of total taxes collected that are paid by each class

Lower – 16.04%

Lower Middle – 33.81%

Upper Middle – 29.75%

Upper – 20.50%

Percent of total population for each class based on returns filed

Lower – 79.42%

Lower Middle – 17.78%

Upper Middle – 2.62%

Upper – 0.17%

Your answer should include the class breakdown (feel free to used other breakdowns, this is just my opinion), ETR, and your reasoning for your class and ETR breakdown.

Update:

Sorry, Peachy. I am a tax accountant by profession so this is a real burning question for me

Update 2:

Eugene c - but what is your answer? This is not a question of income disparity or class warfare, it is about what is a proper tax regimen.

6 Answers

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  • peachy
    Lv 6
    9 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    You brainiacs who understand the guts of economics can talk smack all day long but to a person like me; not stupid but definitely not mathematically inclined, your numbers are all greek to me.

    Bottom line is that obama is waging class warfare. He started this in his campaign by claiming that people needed to "share the wealth." This is socialism, pure and simple. I don't need a bunch of statistics and economics to tell me that.

  • 9 years ago

    what some people don't understand is that when a person earns money they pay a rate of 38%. Then they invest that money and when they earn more money they pay 15% on that money giving the individual a 53% rate of taxation. The liars want to call it the Buffet rule saying they only pay 15% but they forget about the first 38% the democrats repeat this lie about 15% until their followers drink the kool aid. Even Buffet said the Buffet rule was a lie. Now here is another fact when the person that paid 38% of their regular income invests in a company they own part of that company and the company pays 35% business tax the individual actually now pays 78% on their original money. So is 15% enough, yes if you understand how it works.

  • 9 years ago

    look, ill be honest. i'm not even a democrat for crying out loud. if you want to be a part of this system. you need to buy into it. period. if you don't like our DEMOCRACY go live in Iran. or Iraq. what the heck are you doing here if you don't want to be apart of the system?

    it's not about the government taking a bite out of your butt or any of that. it's about serving your fu(king country. We all take a pay cut to support our country. to help the Little guy who can't walk. or god forbid lost his legs. or got burned in a fire. it doesn't matter what the problem is. You pay so that people can get help when they call 911.

    it's not even the united states thing to do. it's the human thing to do.

  • 9 years ago

    you need to start a little farther back than 3 years

    Income inequality between CEOs and workers has consequently exploded, with CEOs last year earning 209.4 times more than workers, compared to just 26.5 times more in 1978 -- meaning CEOs are taking home a larger percentage of company gains.

    That trend comes despite workers nearly doubling their productivity during the same time period, when compensation barely rose. Worker productivity spiked 93 percent between 1978 and 2011 on a per-hour basis, and 85 percent on a per-person basis, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

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  • Anonymous
    9 years ago

    Democrats consider Our Paychecks as THEIR share.

  • 9 years ago

    Fair share is starving old people. Sick and dying people because they don't have medical care, ignorant children because of a limited education. So on and so forth. It's fair, because the wealthy won't share!

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