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Taxes Taxes and more Taxes
By Jon Menaster | August 3, 2007
Everybody pays taxes. You can’t help it, no matter how hard you try. What you can help, however, is at what rate your income is taxed and the amount of taxes you do pay, in the end. The current system we have actually enables the richest portion of US citizens the ability to pay a lower tax rate than the poorer people. This inequity is explored by none other than Ben Stein, in a piece called “The Hedge Fund Class and the French Revolution”.
In the article, Stein points out that hedge fund managers, who make millions upon millions of dollars each year, have found tax loopholes that enable them to tax their payments under a 15% capital gains tax rate, instead of the normal tax rate most Americans pay on their income. If you make between between 31,850 - 77,100, your 2007 tax rate is 25%. This means that the middle class is paying a disproportionate amount of their incomes to the, which Stein correctly points out we appear to be losing, while the rich pay a lower proportional tax on their income. Now, you can look at that and still say that the richer among us are still paying more in taxes overall, I believe that everyone should have to play by the same rules. As it stands now, those with more money to spend on higher priced accountants get rewarded by paying fewer taxes. That just doesn’t seem right to me. Does it to you?
Topics: Business, Finance, Philosophical Musings |