The Tax Foundation recently released its annual report on the number of tax returns filed that have no tax liability, and the study shows a record number of “nonpayers” in 2008. Taxpayers become “non-payers” when credits and deductions wipe out any income tax they owe.I've long felt that everyone has a stake in this country, especially when it comes to things like national defense, and therefore everyone should be required to contribute something via their income tax, even if it's just a token amount. It'll never happen because the left believes "fairness" is giving millions of people a free ride (who will hopefully vote for them) while confiscating 39%+ of other people's money because "they make too much" (the people who won't vote for them). It's become increasingly less rewarding to be a producer in this country.
According to the Tax Foundation report, of the more than 142 million returns filed in 2008, almost 52 million have no tax liability. That means more than 36 percent of tax filers paid no income taxes in 2008 – a new record high. This was a steep increase over 2007 when fewer than 33 percent of filers paid no taxes. As the table below shows, the growth of non-payers is a long-term trend that has been accelerating in recent years. For instance, 21 percent of taxpayers were non-payers in 1990.
The amount of income that a family can earn and still be non-payers is also alarming. In 2010, a family of four can earn up to $51,000 and still pay no income taxes.
Not only do a record number of taxpayer’s pay no taxes, but many of them actually receive cash payments through the tax code because of refundable credits like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit. According to the Tax Foundation, cash payments from these two credits alone totaled over $70 billion.
President Obama’s policies will add to the numbers of non-payers and the amount of income redistributed because he wants to expand and add even more refundable credits.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Fewer and Fewer People Paying More and More of the Costs
An awful lot of your fellow citizens are paying absolutely no income taxes:
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Republicans suffer in the PR wars whenever they push for a fairer tax burden to increase the stake of more Americans in their government. The Left plays it as "the GOP hates poor people" (never mind the demonstrable fact that Leftist policies hurt the poor disproportionately).
Okay then, here's a very simple fix. With this very simple fix, the LEFT will be begging to increase taxes on the poor while the RIGHT will be pushing to reduce them.
The fix is: amend the U.S. Constitution. Wait, don't leave! This amendment would be very popular.
Here's the problem: The 16th amendment (ratified 1913) gave Congress carte blanche to tax incomes anywhere at any time for any amount.
The new amendment will state simply: Congress can levy no tax on any income greater than 20% of that income.
Considering that Congress has other sources of taxes, and that there was no income tax for most of our history, we will survive.
Once that passes, the results will be immediate. Conservatives will treat the 20% as an upper limit to be applied only to large incomes, exempting the poor. Liberals, with their desire for huge government, will demand every person pay the max, including the bum panhandling on the corner.
Total win-win every way you look at it.
You saw it here first.
--Brad
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