[geeks] Taxes

[Lionel Peterson]

On May 27, 2008, at 10:35 PM, mp <mparson at bl.org> wrote:

> On Tue, 27 May 2008, Sandwich Maker wrote:
>> " From: Shannon Hendrix <shannon at widomaker.com>
>> " On May 23, 2008, at 09:44 , Sandwich Maker wrote:
>> " > " From: Lionel Peterson <lionel4287 at verizon.net>
>> " > "
>> " > " []
>> " > "
>> " > " I saw an interesting report last night that analyzed actual tax
>> " > " reciepts as a percentage of domestic earnings, and oddly, no  
>> matter
>> " > " what the tax rates were (91% down to the current "Bush  
>> Adjusted" tax
>> " > " rates that "benefit the wealthy"), the gov't took in about  
>> 19.5% in
>> " > " tax revenue. When the tax rate is higher, people find ways to  
>> reduce
>> " > " their tax liability, when it drops, there is less incentive  
>> to do
>> " > so...
>> " >
>> " > yeah, but shifting that burden from folks who can't afford to  
>> pay to
>> " > folks who just don't want to is not unfair.
>> "
>> " It's not?
>> "
>> " The wealthy already pay the majority of taxes.
>>
>> the wealthy already make most of the income.
>
> The top 1% of wage earners (note, not neccessarily the same as 'the
> wealthy') paid 33.7% of the income taxes collected (2005 numbers,  
> first
> set I could find[0]).  The top 5 percent of earners paid over 50% of  
> the
> taxes collected.
>
> Okay, they make more, so they should pay more?
>
> Well, the top 1% of wage earners earned 16.5% of the total income.   
> The
> top 5% earned 31%.

There is also the "Ten friends go to dinner" story:

Http://www.snipes.com/business/taxes/howtaxes.asp

Lionel