Half of the Population of the US pay no income taxes

Analysis: 'Fair share' in taxes? Not by the numbers
By Jim Angle

Published February 20, 2012


As Americans sit down to file their federal tax returns, a simple question comes to mind -- what's a "fair share" to give the federal government in taxes?

For half the working population, fair means paying almost no income taxes at all.

"The top 10 percent income earners pay about 70 percent of federal income taxes," says Will McBride of the Tax Foundation. "The bottom 50 percent of tax filers have, they pay almost no federal income tax. They pay about 3 percent of federal income taxes."

President Obama’s phrase that everyone should “pay our fair share of taxes” has become something of a political mantra. He has used the expression in dozens of speeches, beginning back in his State of Union address in January. More recently, he told University students in Virginia, "we do expect everyone to do their fair share.”

But for many of the people who pay no taxes, the government also allows tax credits, which end up providing refunds.

"Close to a hundred billion in checks sent out by the IRS (go) to folks who have no tax liability," McBride said. "So the IRS is becoming a spending agency."

Arthur Brooks, head of the American Enterprise Institute, put it this way: "Half of the people who don’t pay anything in federal income taxes -- about half of them pay less than zero."

But Brooks says the system is tilted even more toward those in the middle class and below because they also get services from the federal government. As a result the per capita value of government spending exceeds what those individuals pay in federal taxes.

"Right now about 70 percent of Americans take more out of the tax system than they put into it, according to the Tax Foundation," Brooks said."That's something that should really alarm a lot of Americans."

The policies that left so many people paying no income taxes have been supported by presidents of both parties, and despite what Americans tell pollsters they believe is fair, that’s not how it shakes out.

"The interesting thing is that about two-thirds of Americans think that everybody should pay something,” Brooks said, "so they remember that our government isn't free."

 

I particularly hate the month of January. I have to hear people clamoring for their returns, some of them are getting checks far more than they put in.

But, that said. What is the alternative. The French Revolution was very instructive, and has not been lost on any leaders of any nation in the West, since.

 

"Right now about 70 percent of Americans take more out of the tax system than they put into it"

And the damn liberals think it should be higher! This is simply crazy.

 

And then you have people like Warren Buffet and Mitt Romney who pay the same tax rate as someone making 10K a year.

 

"About half of taxpayers paid no federal income tax last year. It does not mean they paid no tax at all. Many shelled out Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes. In fact, only 14 percent of Americans didn’t pay either income or payroll taxes. Some paid property taxes and, it is fair to say, just about all of them paid sales taxes of one kind or another. So to say they pay no taxes is flat wrong.

However, this class warfare-like rhetoric plays to a perception that the income tax is a chump tax: Only hard-working folks like us pay it. The welfare queens don’t. The super-rich don’t. It is a powerful emotional argument. It is also flat wrong.

The actual number of Americans who don’t pay any taxes isn’t half, but 14%. This group of non-taxpayers of any kind is largely composed of the elderly and disabled. The people who don’t pay taxes do so because they can’t work."



http://www.politicususa.com/en/half-americans-taxes

 

The democratic party leadership knows the truth but have decided that they need a contrived enemy, a target that they can use to unify their leftist constituents. Obama's choice to incite class-warfare is just a campaign strategy. He is attacking the same banks he bailed out. He is attacking the same super-rich people he funneled money to via the "stimulus".

The left wants people to be poor and dependent upon goverment assistance so that they will be reluctant to vote republican. They will say anything to increase taxes on the middle class and the upper income brackets in order to provide more welfare to the dependent class.

If Obama is reelected he isn't going to need to worry about another election and will really start to introduce radical socialist policies and there won't be anything to stop him except maybe congress and they seem to be more worried about enriching themselves than defending the consititution or the people. I think we're going to see a frontal attack on gun ownership as well. I anticipate a direct attack on freedom of speech to suppress the few conservative sources of commentary that are left. We're going to become a socialist police-state. Our defense budgets are going to be absolutely raped in a second Obama term.

It is one thing for a low-income household to pay little or no taxes. It is quite another thing for that same household to receive a "refund" on taxes they did not pay in the first place. It has become another form of welfare. It is socialism.

 

For the sake of accuracy, it is impossible to get an IRS refund larger than what you have already paid in .

 

I think this post is alarmist. We had this in place for quite a long time. No congress or President has challenged it.

What exactly is your sense of loss about this? What exactly have you lost? Free enterprise seems to have worked quite well for you in spite of these things. And to be honest, I really can't complain either, and I have no deductions.

This used to make me mad too until I realized that this a function of pure greed on my part.

 

EITC. It is possible, I have seen it with my own two eyes. Unless I was mistaken. What makes you say that?

 

I am talking about federal taxes refund.
It looks like you are talking about payments from other programs.