Quote:
Originally Posted by fatbuckRTO
From the article goof2 posted:
I will grant you, that's a small number of millionaires. But they are clearing $1 million, so there was a loophole of some sort involved somewhere along the line. So what happens if, instead of taxing that 1470 people nothing, we tax them just 25% (assuming they only made $1 million)?
$1 million x 25% = $250,000
$250,000 x 1470 = $367,500,000
Beats Bachmann's "expand the tax base" plan, at least.
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I already told you the most likely reason why that less than 1% paid no federal income taxes. In 2008 the Dow Jones lost over 35% of its value. There were plenty of investments that lost significantly more. The way it works is that investment losses can be written off from a person's income. Do you think it is feasible that under 1% of those making over a $1 million per year realized losses that were more than their annual income? That isn't some loophole. That has been a part of the tax code for quite a while and is available to anyone. Calling that a loophole isn't any different than saying those who don't pay taxes because they make shit are taking advantage of a loophole.
What remains that even after factoring in those who didn't pay any federal income taxes, and the investment losses many of the rest of them were able to write off, as a group they averaged an effective tax rate over 29% for only federal taxes.