Thursday, October 13, 2011

I see that Warren Buffett paid $7 million last year in federal income taxes. He and I are two American citizens who have a duty to contribute to our country. I'm a middle-income college professor. The federal government paid me $2,000 last year (I paid in 2k and got a return of 4k). How am I getting screwed, exactly?
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12 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:46 AM

    I'm having a difficult time understanding how you, a person who must have a decent income, actually made 2K. Do you have a private corporation going with claimed losses?

    Brief explanation, please. As a middle income person, I often got back quite a bit of money at the end of the tax year, but that's only because I claimed zero exemptions. I'd like to know your secret.

    (BTW, I agree with your larger point.)

    What gives?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous5:40 PM

    "How am I getting screwed, exactly?"

    Laurence Kotlikoff notes that many who save in tax deferred accounts will pay a higher rate when they withdraw that money than they would pay now. He thinks that government saw tons of boomers retiring and figured it would be a good idea to figure a way to tax them after they retire. Interesting idea.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous6:03 PM

    "Laurence Kotlikoff notes that many who save in tax deferred accounts will pay a higher rate when they withdraw that money than they would pay now. He thinks that government saw tons of boomers retiring and figured it would be a good idea to figure a way to tax them after they retire. Interesting idea."

    Yep, I am a retired teacher who put into a 403b for over 30 years. I haven't started drawing on the funds yet, but I just listened to Mark Levin tell me about the Dems plans to raid everyone's 403b's and 401k's with increased tax burdens. Bastards.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jehu9:59 PM

    My wager is that our host has lots of kids. The child tax credit can be pretty large when you've got several. In addition, I bet he's got a mortgage, state income tax, and probably charitable contributions also.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Underachiever12:30 AM

    http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/the_great_divergence/features/2010/the_united_states_of_inequality/introducing_the_great_divergence.html

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ron Guhname6:44 AM

    Multiple kids, homemaker wife, charitable contributions, medical expenses.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Jim Bowery12:29 PM

    You're getting screwed because you and your wife should be getting about $20k/year in citizens dividends from the government, and you shouldn't have to even file a tax return.

    This dividend should come entirely from a use fee for property rights beyond homestead levels (the levels protected by chapter 7 bankruptcy) and all taxes should be eliminated.

    This eliminates the private sector rent-seeking wealth guys like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg enjoy due to the network effect.

    This also eliminates the public sector rent-seeking wealth acquired by special interests who use the resources they get from government to buy more government influence.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Nanonymous2:45 PM

    So it looks like my punishment for not having kids above replacement level is to pay for you having more kids. Oh well, hope your kids turn out well :-)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous5:52 PM

    So it looks like my punishment for not having kids above replacement level is to pay for you having more kids.


    Who do you think is going to look after you in your old age? Robots?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous8:50 PM

    Thanks for the explanation, Ron.


    Everyone should have to pay some taxes. There should be NO net gains-- for anyone. No matter how small the contribution from those who make little, everyone should have skin in the game or else they won't hold the pols feet to the fire for how the money is spent.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous7:15 PM

    Why does everyone have to pay? Income taxes at first were put only on the richest or highest income brackets. A class tax, not a mass tax. WW 2 turned it into a mass tax.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous6:56 PM

    we can all agree that the U.S. government wants us to have children. 2 questions:
    why?
    and who exactly is the federal government?

    ReplyDelete

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