Essay On Federal Income Taxes

The rich should not be taxed more. Increasing tax rates for the upper class will not solve the present inequality problem. The wealthy americans should be expected the same amount of taxes as the poor for equality. Those who earn more shouldn't help the less fortunate because they worked harder for the money they earn.

“Considering that the top marginal tax rate for the wealthiest Americans today is 35 percent, that figure seems astounding. But it's true that in the 1950s, the top marginal tax rates were over 90 percent” (Farley). Many may think, how does lower taxes on the highest income earners have an effect on them. Simple, less funding of programs that enrich the quality of one’s life. When the government does not receive the needed funding spending cuts must be made. Unfortunately, these spending cuts are more often than not are on government programs that help those who are

Before delving into the topic at hand, a look at the current and projected tax system will help understand the predicament of taxing the upper class. According to Bardes, Schmidt, and Shelley, in the textbook American Government and Politics Today: Brief Edition, Americans pay a variety of federal, state, and local taxes, which are all assessed on most sources of income, sales and land. Bardes et al, made their agenda clear by pointing out that “the wealthy receive a much greater share of their income from these sources (capital gains, rents, royalties, interests, dividends, or profits from business), than others do (315).” But what is considered wealthy? In the article, Who gets to be “Rich”, Jordan Weissmann reported that a household income of around $113,000 lands one at the top 10% of income earners, while $394,000 makes one a

This article written by Dave Roos explains the American situation that is already in the title itself “Is it true that only 53 percent of Americans pay income tax?” To further explain, Mr. Roos pointed out that the politicians and organizations believe that the richest Americans pay the largest share of taxes. He then gives an example of the top twenty percent of Americans that earn 53.4 percent but pay 67.2 percent of total income tax. Another shocking point that was made was half of all Americans don’t pay income tax at all; reason being that they are the 99 percent. That being said, the 53 percent of Americans who pay income tax must be given credit for keeping the US in business. This statistics states to be true because only 49 percent

Since the 99 percent of Americans incomes are falling, “Lowering tax rates on capital gains, which is how the rich receive a large portion of their income, has given the wealthiest Americans close to a free ride” (Stiglitz 748). Meaning that the top 1 percent of Americans

Even though I always knew that the American capitalist system will create an extreme unfair economic distribution, my jaw still dropped as I saw the data. When the 1% took almost a half of the country's money, they would influence our government and its policies, which would make such an unfair distribution even worse. It’s unlikely to make those 1% give up their social status and wealth to help reshape this unequally balanced society into a better place.

A 'fair'/ tax depends on how one defines 'rich' As Grosz (2012) notes this is not so simple; for Obama it was anyone earning more than $250,000 a year. Obama, too, tried to hike tax on the wealthy, but it seems to be the middle-class who are actually getting the shorter end of the stick since the extreme rich don't make their money from working but rather make it from investments, capital gains and dividends (e.g. Condon, S. (December 19, 2012)). The Obama Administration believes that economic distribution is more important than economic growth with money being used for "entitlement programs" (social security and Medicare) and infrastructure improvement. Obama had, originally, insisted that taxes should be increased for anybody earning more than $250,000 whilst money would be spared for the poor. Even the Republicans agreed with this idea. But given this scenario, the wealthy will only receive a gentle lowering in their taxes, whilst it is the middle class who will largely be affected. (Grosz, D. (Dec 19, 20.

Did you know that the top 1 percent controls 43 percent of the wealth in the nation; the next 4 percent controls an additional 29 percent of wealth. That leaves 28 percent of the nation’s wealth to the majority 95 percent of the population. The rich basically control all the wealth of this country, yet we still aren’t taxing them enough as compared to the lower classes who pay more of percentage compared to their own income. But does taxing the rich actually halt the overall economic growth of this nation? No it does not. The government can take advantage of this obvious point and raise large amounts of revenue by taxing them at higher rates and still have them receive a portion of it back, they also have more money to give up in taxes compared to other economic classes, and there are also studies that prove too much inequality reduces economic growth. If we looked at how much we should raise the tax for them then it would have to be up to the 40 or 45 percent mark. That way it would benefit the revenue with an increase close to an extra 55 billion dollars. There are actually billionaires who are willing to pay higher taxes because they pay less compared to the rest of the tax rates on their employees. History has always proved that taxing the rich sometimes has no effect on the economy since people start to take advantage and allocate the resources to different areas. In all that mix up it could be misplaced and people may use it for unnecessary means.

Taxes are a main contributor to the United States’ economy. One thing that I never understood with taxes is why the rich get a large tax break, where the middle class get a small refund. The rich can wind up making up the payment in taxes by working in a short amount of time. The amount of money you make should contribute to the amount of taxes you pay. Tax rates fell during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, however this also wound up benefiting the rich as well.

“In this world, nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes”.Taxes are inevitable, the government uses our tax dollars for many things that every citizen utilizes in some way or another. The United States government spends money in areas such as military, social security, interest on the national debt, veteran benefits, food and agricultural benefits, and education programs. A popular topic lately is, are the wealthy taxed enough or are they over taxed? Do the wealthy pay their fair share based on how much they make?

The rich should have to pay more taxes. They make more money so they should have to give more, the poor makes less so they should have to give less. Everybody should have to pay taxes, even the poor people who don’t make that much money. Each taxpayer should have to give a certain percentage of their yearly income. For example, if a taxpayer makes $60k or below they should have to give five percent and if they make $61k-$99k then they should give ten percent. For each income range, the percentage should increase five percent. All of the classes work hard for their money. It’s just that the poor weren’t given the same opportunities as the rich. The rich have a right to be mad that they are paying more in taxes than the lower class, but America

Warren Buffet, one of the richest men on earth, tells us to stop coddling the rich. It is time to take him up on that offer. We should start to enforce income tax on the top one percent. In the New York Times article, "Stop Coddling the Rich'', written by Warren Buffet, he says that he paid around seven million in income taxes. That is only seventeen point four percent of his taxable income. While the middle class pays a fifteen to twenty-five percent income tax then get hit with a heavy payroll tax. Ignoring these problems in the United States will only make the middle class weaker, and the rich richer.

Imposing higher taxes on wealthier individuals could complement ways listed above. The rich get a big breaks on their taxes and should be paying more. Even billionaire Warren Buffet confesses that he pays a lower tax rate than his secretary. But this situation has been different before.

Taxes could be set at a specific percentage or a specific dollar amount. This idea seems fair, with everyone paying the same rate, but, in fact, it can be extremely detrimental to low income families. Flat taxes are usually set in the neighborhood of 17 to 20%, meaning that lower income families, let’s say, families making $5,000 a year would pay 1,000 dollars leaving just 4,000 to pay for necessities. On the other hand, wealthy families making 400,000 a year would pay 80,000 dollars, leaving 320,000 dollars for spending, significantly more than low income families. Additionally, this system has not gone unproposed. It has been brought up four times in the last 30 years, the most recent of which in 2011 when several republican candidates embraced the flat tax, including Herman Cain with a 9% set tax, and Rick Perry with a 20%. However, these proposals and others similar to them have yet to gain traction in our government. No form of the flat tax has ever made it past the first stages of formation, which means it is very likely that there will never be a successful plan.

Everyone gets frustrated with income taxes and everyone complains that they are paying more than enough, but who really pays more in federal income taxes? Having a progressive tax system; meaning that the more money you earn, the more you will have to pay in taxes; would lead to the rich paying for most of the taxes and not the poor. Unfortunately, many people do not realize some of the problems with the tax system itself that offsets the balance as well as the results when it comes to taxes. There are many unseen things when looking at no more than just the statistics of who pays the most in taxes. Anything from the tax rates, the difference between federal and individual income taxes as well as state taxes can create a problem when getting to the bottom of who really pays the most taxes. Government Aided benefits and even untaxed amounts take their part in income taxes because they do make a difference on someone 's income which can alter the amount they will then owe in taxes. Although there are many ups and downs when it comes to income taxes, one of the biggest issues is that the rich are not paying nearly enough.