Taxed Enough Already?

Tax Freedom Day gets later and later.


http://dailycaller.com/2014/04/07/tax-freedom-day-falls-three-days-later-this-year/


quote:
“By April 21, … Americans will have made enough to pay the $3 trillion in federal taxes and $1.5 trillion in state taxes — more than they will spend on food clothing and housing combined.”




Taxcutter says:
Yeah. I’m taxed enough already.

 

taxed 10x too much, already. Do you realize that as much as 3/4 of what you pay for something is taxes? say a car, the miners of the iron ore and coal are taxed, the shippers of same to the steel plant are taxed, the steel workers (and company) are taxed, the shippers of steel to the car makers are taxed, the car makers are taxed, the shippers of cars to the dealer are taxed, and the dealer is taxed. GUESS who pays for ALL those taxes, hmm? the guy who buys the car. same with food and nearly everything else. so it's NOT just the taxes that you pay DIRECTLY, it's the OTHER 50% of your remaining money that's taxed, TOO.

 

The libs never met a tax they didn't like! That's why they refer to the Tea Party as everything but what it really is. TAXED ENOUGH ALREADY!

 

People tend to not mind burdens they don't have to shoulder themselves. Where it becomes vile is in trotting out propaganda piece after piece in effort to justify or increase theft.

 

Ultimately, paying taxes and paying rent amount to the same thing. If you want to live in a clean, safe, well-functioning neighbourhood you have to expect to pay a fair bit more than you would if your next door neighbour is a crack dealer.

In terms of the economy and the size of government, I'd say there are a number of aspects of our societies that are too important to a healthy society to be left to the private sector to manage-- utilities, land use, mineral resources, policing, defense and the like.

And if the regulatory agencies responsible for keeping an eye on these matters require people and tax revenue to do their job, so be it.

 

I don't think anyone here would disagree with the above, no one is arguing for anarchy, but rather in light of the fact in the OP that it now takes over 1/3 of the year for average workers to pay for these things. That's absurd on its face. In the age of computers and telecomm, innovations that bring, or should bring, massive economies of scale to government, why does it cost more and more? I certainly don't see any aspect of my life that benefits from that enormous level of costs, nor does anyone I know who is reasonable and honest. There is a point on the scale for reasonable costs of government, we are far, far past that point in the US today.

We are being charged for lobster and getting fish sticks.

 

Los Angeles County looks to raise their sales tax to 10.5%... it never ends in Liberal Land. They just had a 35% increase in their energy costs because they closed their recently rebuilt nuclear plants due to a quickly fixable issue by stalling the decision dates beyond the point that the energy company could keep the 4,000 employed on the payroll with nothing to show for it. (Barbara Boxer) headed that effort.

In the end there are some answers you can't get out of Democrats/Liberals. HOW MUCH OF OF MY MONEY IS ENOUGH? Please tell me so I know how to manage my future.

All they want is MORE, MORE, MORE, they are like crackheads when it comes to OTHER PEOPLES' MONEY.

Democrackhead Party.

 

Yeah man, cut all military spending. That is a trillion in tax saving.

Then get rid of medicare. Another trillion.

Social security can be the next to go. Probably 2 trillion.

Lastly sue Wall Street and the Banks for the 10 Trillion in damage they did to the economy.

 

Our tax rates are as low as they have ever been in our lifetimes currently. Taxed enough already? I think that you're just uninformed.

 

Wow, what a steamer, and without any substantiation whatsoever to boot.

It's not the case that our tax rates are as low as they have ever been in our lifetimes currently. The payroll tax, which is the primary chunk of taxes most workers pay, has been applied to more and more income over the last couple of decades. Clinton's OBRA in 1993 raised taxes significantly on many middle class Americans. The Bush partial rollback of OBRA, falsely described as "Bush Tax Cuts," has mostly expired, leaving us with higher preBush rates back in force.

 

To put some perspective on this, only places like Hong Kong and Singapore have lower taxes than you, so be thankful.

Not to say we all shouldn't aspire to be Hong Kong, but still.

 

I see 18-20 countries on my list with overall lower tax burden. Government takes too much all over the world, the logical equivalent of the above is "well they only cut off one of your hands instead of two, so be grateful." Moreover, as economy size increases, so should economies of scale in governance. In light of that, the overall % burden in the US should be much less to obtain the same services, yet it is not.

 

I'd actually like to see this list, I'm curious as to where these can be found. I have a a feeling that like Hong Kong and Singapore a lot of them are tax haven countries whose economies are reliant on providing financial services.

 

My neighbor is some kind of a drug cooker and I still pay the same taxes as the guy 5 miles away without one.

 

http://www.photius.com/rankings/tax_burden_country_ranks_2009.html

I don't know if there's a more recent list. I also don't know to the extent this includes cap gains, property taxes, sin taxes, or other taxes levied in the US on everything from airline tickets, hotels, telecomm, gasoline, unemployment taxes, worker's comp, etc.

 

What a joke these libertarians are.

 

None of your complaints about taxes are going to mean anything. Either we get sufficient equipment into space to watch for incoming objects or civilization collapses.

 

OK our family income is above the median for families in the U.S. Not much but some. Our AGI was $44,500 and our Federal income tax was $5,500. Our State income tax was $2,600. We do not pay sales tax in DE. my property taxes were for county and city, $800. That is my total tax burden, I took the standard deduction, which gave me my AGI, I paid a little more than one fifth of my income in taxes total. Since we make about 15 grand more than the median family income, to say that the average family pays 1/3rd of their income in taxes is bogus.

 

YOU can pay all the taxes you want. IF our military was doing something worthwhile and efficiently, like having 5,10k guys manning rifle towers on the mexican border, I could see paying (that many of them) as things are, tho, they are a horrible detriment to the US

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you are wrong. You also paid 15% for SS, and a host of other "hidden" taxes that make everything you buy 3-4x as expensive as it should be. you pay half of the price of fuel as a tax, you pay sales tax, you pay all kinds of excise taxes that you overlook.

 

1. The average taxpayer in the US pays sales tax of around 6%. But I suspect you already know that.
2. I don't know what the median property tax is, but $800 sounds somewhat low.
3. As far as "we make 15 grand more than the median family income?" No, you make about 10 grand more than the average single worker income, and very close to the average household income. I suspect you know that full well though. (There are lots of issues with median household income as an accurate median, the true median is likely significantly higher).
4. Your employers pays half of your SS tax, and other taxes on your behalf that amount to 6% or so.
5. You neglect to include all the other taxes paid, gasoline, telecomm, cable, fees, licenses, that the average person pays.

Those factors would likely get you to 1/3 very easily if not more. To base what the average family pays on what -you- pay without adjustments is what is bogus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrtoSx-NbLQ&feature=related

 

Why would any liberal vote for lowering taxes for anyone when that would mean Obama's Santa Claus bag of goodies for voters would become smaller?

Libs love other peoples money since working for their own money is out of the question.

 

I see a lot of bullcrap tossed around by Liberals in this thread.

The U.S.A. was not supposed to be like any other country. We were founded on an aversion to taxation. We knew that Governments of the world were taking far far far too much of "We the People's" hard earned money. We were founded with Capitalism as our basis for a damn good reason. More people have had a higher standard of living from Capitalism than any other economic system in the history of mankind. The U.S.A. should not be compared to other countries, because that is just an attempt to make us like them with heavy taxation, authoritarian centralized governments, and people answering to bureaucrats.

Americans, don't ever let others try to "compare you". When they do standard of living comparisons it's apples and oranges. I know, I have traveled the world. When they say an American has a: car, television, refrigerator, etc.... and a European has one, they are vastly different (on average). But, they check them off as being equal... they are not.

Don't let them suck you into being like the rest of the world. You won't like what that really means and you won't like the downgrade in your standard of living.

 

I suppose it all comes down to whether or not you believe you're getting value for your money. Obviously, a staunch Libertarian is going to consider taxation tantamount to theft. An MOR conservative might consider it a necessary evil in principle. People left of center (who, don't forget, comprise an enormous percentage of tax-payers) are likely to say that an important measure of the success of a society is the way the state treats its most vulnerable members.

I'm no 'lefty', but as I say, some things are simply too important to the overall health of a society to be relegated exclusively to the profit motive and discretionary charitable donation.

 

The median household income in the U.S. before taxes is $51,000, we made about $15 thousand more than that.. That is household not individual. DE has no sales tax, and has low property taxes. We do have a graduated income tax with the highest rate being 6.95% on income over $60,000.