Quote:
Originally Posted by MarchHare
Are there any Americans who pay literally "no taxes at all"? I know there's people who make so little money that they don't have to pay income tax or are so rich that they employ tax accountants to exploit loopholes to pay no income or capital gains tax, but how do people avoid things like taxes on gasoline, public transit, liquor, sales tax, etc.?
Also, have you actually looked into how much revenue would be generated if the poorest Americans who currently pay no income tax were instead taxed at, say, 10%? I may very well be wrong, but I suspect it wouldn't make much of a dent at all into the deficit. On the other hand, I'm guessing that increasing taxation slightly (and closing tax loopholes) on the richest 1-5% of the population would go a much longer way to solve the debt crisis.
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I'm not sure if they're paying 'no' taxes at all. Recent posters have talked about a tax floor that is apparently pretty high.
Either way, the idea isn't to tax poor Americans 'more.' The idea is to fairly tax everyone. Rich Americans are getting away with not paying any taxes because they can exploit loopholes and tax havens. If you reform the tax code and apply it fairly to everyone then rich Americans like Buffet don't get away with paying 15% rates, while middle class Americans pay 35% rates.
In the end you would probably be taxing the lower/middle class less, and the upper class more simply based on the even percentage. Course, politically that would be suicide, so I doubt it will ever happen.