Politics – The Senate voted Thursday to block a looming tax increase averaging $2,000 for millions of taxpayers after Senate Republicans succeeded in thwarting a Democratic plan to also raise taxes on investors.
"12 million people in the $100,000 to $200,000 income level alone would be hit by the AMT without the fix, and "we need to stop that from happening." WHY? Shouldn't everyone pay their share of taxes? This bunch of idiots can't do anything for feather their nest.
The whole point of the AMT - which was introduced in 1970 - was to target certain ultra high income households that had so many tax breaks that they ended up not having to pay any income tax at all.
Because of inflation and the fact that the tax has not been adjusted, this higher rate now effects households with lower incomes that what the law was originally enacted for.
This law should be updated so it targets the rich trying to get out of taxes instead of upper middle class families who pay their taxes as the rules say they should and then get stuck with a huge unexpected tax payment and penalties come tax time.
A better wat to pay for this fix is to repeal the tax cuts for the rich that bushco enacted. Such as the lowering of capital gains tax from 20% to 15%.
Or the loophole with corporations, where instead of drawing a huge salary at a higher tax rate, the big boys take their money at the end of the year in the form of a dividend, which is taxed at that 15%. Their tax rate is that of low income people, while the middle class pays more. It's wrong. Can't imagine people excusing this.
Yes! Yes! Another tax hike power flushed down the commode. I love it. All those democrats want to do is raise taxes and cause more problems. And of course their liberal drones continue to act like a tax hike is a good thing. Wake up liberals!
Hey dumb chit. We are 10 TRILLION dollars in debt. Just how in the freaking world do you think we'll pay off the debt if by not CUTTING SPENDING-something the repugnant's refuse to do-and raising taxes on those who slip through the loop holes put in the tax codes by your hero's? You are about the dumbest idiot I've ever heard of. GOD get a life you idiot.
Raising taxes on anyone is always a bad thing! Our tax code is totally beyond control, but this AMT needed to be fixed. I am glad that the Dems. were blocked on this one.
Buffalo J...
Do your parents own a house that you will one day inherit? If so, you will have to pay capitol gains on that. Which would you rather pay, 15 or 20%? Or how about stocks you own?
The "death tax" should be eliminated 100%. We work hard trying to gain some level of wealth all our lives, we pay taxes on everything we earn and purchase, why should a child have to pay taxes again on what we have already paid taxes on? Stopping some of the "gov't giveaway programs", especially those that benefit the Illegal aliens, and those that keep otherwise healthy people from working (why work when the Gov't will pay me to sit on my butt all day)? Those seem like much better ideas to me.
The wealthy don't pay inheritance taxes, they set up trusts, foundations, corporate entities to avoid those taxes. It costs a fair amount of money to do this and money to maintain it, but still much less than paying 55% to the government to waste.
So it comes down to the well-to-do folks that worked hard, paid their taxes and would like to leave something for their children and grand children that get affected. Not enough to afford a trust of sorts, so these are the easy targets of the IRS and government, both state and local.
EsaEngr,
The inheritance tax kicks in when you inherit $2 million, nothing under that. Capital gains affect you when you sell property or get not-earned income, and I'm not certain about limits on that income.
I have yet to accrue $1 million in my lifetime and I've yet to meet anyone that has. I've bought and sold property where I didn't have to pay capital gains.
As for government "giveaway programs", see if you can recoup the billions of dollars given to corporations just this past year.
Taxes that are based on income levels (FICA for example) need to be adjusted as incomes grow. Government does provide incentives, taxes abatement and grants for example, for economic growth. But like anything that government does, can be wise or foolish.
EsaEngr,
Good question on what would I want to pay, 15 or 20 percent . From a me perspective I'll take the money every time. From a good of the country/good of our children perspective, I say it should go back to .
Especially now. War spending is out of control and has plunged this country deeper and deeper in debt. Debt as a percentage of GDP is second only to during WWII and then we needed that kind of spending escape the Great Depression.
For EsaEngr, I think you will find when you inherit real property, such as the house in your example, your "basis" value is the value of the property at the time of inheritance.
So, if you sell the property for the same value as it was, at the time of inheritance, you pay no capital gains tax, as there is no increase in value, as far as you are concerned.
This is one of the major reasons to inherit a house from parents, rather than having your name on the deed as a co-owner. If you are a co-owner, and you then sell after your parent's death, the increase in value from the time you were added to the deed to the actual sale date is taxed as a capital gains.
People seem to be missing one important point here. It seems that for democrats, cutting spending is NOT an option. The so called losses from stopping this tax that was never meant to be come out to about 1.5% of the entire budget. A simple 1.5% across the board reduction in the budget would mean they could fix this unfair tax AND pay for it according to the rules they made up. But it seems they have put spending your money above even the rules they created for themselves.
The democrats tried to reduce spending by 50 billions saved from Bush's budget to Iraq and his rich buddy contractors but the republicans wont allow it. They talk about tax cuts but when you create the type of deficits accummulated by the republicans, that is worse than a tax increase. Don't get me wrong, I'm for cutting spending. It's a matter of where.
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66)
Republicans, said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, "complain that we pay for this legislation by closing tax loopholes. Their solution? Just add the costs of the AMT fix ($50 billion) to the deficit and national debt. I absolutely reject this fiscally irresponsible approach."
Another reason the republicans are the party for the rich! Closing tax loopholes is bad? Yes, only for the rich. I doubt the tax loopholes will effect the middle class or the poor. C'mon folks, republicans have been waging a war against the middle class and poor since Reagan.
and there aren't any rich Democrats. Kennedy, Kerry, Edwards, Clinton, ect.
bill2936 - they are all on the record saying they pay too little in taxes. The first to say that was Clinton at the last DNC convention...since then you have bill gates, warren buffet (don't know that i am correct on the spelling) and many others saying the same thing.
I cant see how a people that want a war, call themselves the true lovers of America can be so unwilling to carry their share of the load!
Good on congress it's about time they hold them responsible for this crap!
Everyone Republican I know that is for the war also pays taxes so how are they not carrying their share of the load? Maybe they know that their tax money is going into things such as financing illegal immigrants and higher government salary's that aren't deserving of the job.
You can blame Bush for the national debt, that's fair. But many local governments such as San Fransicko pay huge salary's for government jobs that don't deserve it. They also are not financially adept to manage money. How is it that California is still hugely in debt and the government is now giving raises? Shouldn't they do something for that raise?
Income tax is only 30% of the governments take, they get the rest thru this tax, that tax, the tax on the tax and so on.
dam anyone who reads knows that we are in this financial mess not because of illegal immigrants! But because of this stupid thing in Iraq. I call it a thing because we are not at war! What you should do before you come in here and resite what the idiots on FOX says, is some research. If you did you would never had write such stupid things!
It's soooooooooooo easy to pay more taxes,,, all it takes is writing a check and mailing it in. Let all the DNC leaders that say they want to pay more taxes do so,,, then they can actually do more than talk and lead by example.
bill2936- Those you sited are all in favor of paying more in taxes. Hell, even I take tax write-offs for interest on my mortgage and other legal tax deductions but still pay about a quarter of my income in taxes to the government. If asked to sacrifice by paying more taxes and the costs are shared with the rich paying their fair amount, I might not like it, but I'd support it.
Charleston,
You should do as the politicians do, have a second house that you soend most of you time at, and write off all expenses for that place.
That would make me out to be more of a hypocite than I really want to be.
You can always put undies down as a deduction,,,, I hear it's quite presidential to do so.
For those that believe that the rich democrats actually favor paying more taxes to the government themselves, please note, there is nothing in the law that would bar them from just giving the money to the government. Or increase their tax burden by taking the standard deduction vice the itemized deduction, or from emilinating their little tax scam that allows them to write off all their expenses (prior to taking the itemized deduction) for maintain a second household in DC. No, they don't want to pay more taxes, they want YOU to pay more taxes.
> please note, there is nothing in the law that would bar
> them from just giving the money to the government.
Same lame republican argument. Everyone should pay this tax not just volunteers. The fact that they pay less than 25% percent rate wrong.
"For most of its existence, the AMT has affected few taxpayers, less than 1 percent in any year before 2000, but its impact is expected to grow rapidly in coming years and affect about one-fifth of all taxpayers in 2010. In her 2003 report to the Congress, the Internal Revenue Service's National Taxpayer Advocate, Nina Olson, labeled the AMT "the most serious problem faced by taxpayers."(1)"
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdoc.cfm?index=5386
Seems to me this tax is going to do more harm than good. If the AMT tax isn't adjusted for inflation then more people will be paying it. When $75,000 is only worth $50,000 at the time they passed this law, then we will have serious problems because those taxpayers will start falling into the middle America group.
This is why we should go to a strictly comsumtion tax, that way there are no loop holes for anyone over the poverty level.. the rich will buy their high dollar things and pay the taxes owed. You won't have to pay taxes on used items like cars everytime it passes hands and houses as well if you have moeny left you won't be taxed for you saving, and it will do away with the death tax. But then that would take power out of the greedy politican's hands and the Dems would no longer have a class war card they can toss out, so it's unlikely to happen.
They never say they wated to, however they said they should be! Which i more than i am hearing from that more American than any other American RIGHT!
Of course there are rich democrats! And isn't it interesting that they recognize their responsibility to pay their share, while republicans don't.
HAHA... you libs are so funny. If the Democrat's want to pay more taxes and help, why don't they go to their HUGE bank accounts and pull out some money and give it to the government? Do they have to wait for taxes to give money? Why can't they just write a check?
Or not accept the tax returns.
They are politicians first, they say anything for votes. But they do make a fair point, tax cuts with our current national debt is irresponsible.
Bush is cutting taxes while our debt goes up by 1.4 billion that's very smart. us stupid libs we just don't get it! The country is in financial trouble why cut the taxes that help clinton ballance the budget, now that would be stupid!
Did it ever occur to ANY of them to cut spending?
How hard can it be to find $50 billion in a budget that is over $2.5 trillion!
Cut spending? what's that? Is that anything a Dem has ever considered? Or a Republican lately?