[Vision2020] Income Tax Burden Near Its All-Time Low

[Donovan Arnold]

Why is it that families making $60K pay only 3% of their income in taxes and I make less than half that and pay over 20%?
 
Oh, I know why, they have children and grandchildren that are expected to pay their share of the deficit, and I am expected to pay all of mine now, as I have no children to pass on the debt of my gluttonous lifestyle. . 
 
Best Regards,
 
Donovan
 


--- On Thu, 4/16/09, Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com> wrote:


From: Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com>
Subject: [Vision2020] Income Tax Burden Near Its All-Time Low
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Date: Thursday, April 16, 2009, 5:51 AM


Courtesy of today's (April 16, 2009) Spokesman Review.

------------------------------------------------------

Income tax burden near its all-time low
Gallup registers unusually favorable assessment of federal income taxes
Lori Montgomery / Washington Post  

WASHINGTON – As thousands of anti-tax protesters rallied across the nation 
Wednesday and the president promised tax cuts for most, new data showed 
that the federal income tax burden is already hovering near its lowest 
level in three decades for all but the wealthiest Americans.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that the average 
family forked over barely 9 percent of its earnings to the IRS in 2006, 
the most recent year for which information is available. The effective tax 
rate hit its all-time low in 2003 and has crept up only slightly since.

Middle-class families – to whom President Obama has delivered even more 
tax relief since he took office in January – have fared especially well, 
according to the CBO. The middle fifth of taxpayers, who earned an average 
of $60,700 per household in 2006, paid just 3 percent in federal income 
tax that year, down from a high of 8.3 percent in 1981.

With federal income taxes so low for so many families, a majority of those 
surveyed by Gallup last week said the amount of federal income taxes they 
pay is either “too low” or “about right,” compared with 46 percent who 
said their tax bills are “too high” – one of the most positive assessments 
of the federal tax burden since Gallup began asking the question in 1956.

Gallup analysts said the poll results may also reflect confidence in 
Obama’s pledge not to raise taxes on families making less than $250,000 a 
year, a vow he repeated Wednesday in a tax-day speech at the Old Executive 
Office Building. Obama presented nine taxpayers who he said were better 
off because of tax breaks enacted in the recent economic stimulus package, 
including a tax credit for working families worth up to $800 this year.

Still, thousands of protesters marked the day federal income taxes were 
due by attending hundreds of “tea parties” from Florida to Hawaii, 
organizers said. The rallies were promoted by FreedomWorks, a conservative 
nonprofit group led by Dick Armey, a lobbyist and Texas Republican who 
once served as House majority leader.

In a pre-rally telephone interview from Atlanta, where he was preparing to 
speak on the steps of the statehouse, Armey conceded that “the federal tax 
rate right now is at a good level.” But, he said, “there are very few 
people who believe Obama will be content to leave it at that.”

Armey said the real target of the protesters’ ire is not the current tax 
rate but the much higher one that will be needed to pay for trillions of 
dollars in financial-sector bailouts; the stimulus package, which is 
projected to add nearly $800 billion to the federal debt over the next 10 
years; and Obama’s ambitious health-care and education initiatives, which 
are projected to raise the debt by trillions of dollars more.

“There’s no way he can do the spending he does and cut taxes for most 
people,” Armey said. “People know that spending inevitably means more 
taxes.”

The White House stuck to its own low-taxes message Wednesday, as Obama 
repeated his “clear promise that families that earn less than $250,000 
will not see their taxes increase by a single dime.” Asked whether Obama 
is confident that he can stick to that pledge throughout his 
administration, press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters: “He is. He 
is. He is.”

------------------------------------------------------

Seeya at the Wingding, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

Join us at The First Annual Intolerista Wingding, April 17th, featuring 
Roy Zimmerman and Jeanne McHale.  For details go to . . .

http://www.MoscowCares.com/Wingding

Seeya
there.

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