Why do some who write off up to 40% of their income claim they are being taxed more?

Question

How many write-offs do $50k per year household earners take? How many write-offs do $250k per year household earners take?

Does a higher tax bracket automatically equate to paying a higher percentage of ones annual income considering the write-offs?

cora (below) If i lease a Mercedes or fly to Australia, I can write these things off as business related. True or not?

Answer 1

Yes, a higher tax bracket is a higher percentage of income.

And remember that to write off anything, you need to have either given all of that money away (100% tax/tithe) or spent the money on very specific things that are deducitible, as opposed to being able to spend it on whatever you want.

Answer 2

I make a good living and take whatever the standard, available deductions are.

I am self-employed and physically make out the checks to the government myself.

Some of them are huge - it's daunting.

I pay maybe 40% of my income in taxes, state and federal. I pay a far larger amount in taxes every year than my Dad ever made! He may have had less headaches, though, I don't know.

I don't mind the concept of paying for government services, but I want more value for my money!

Answer 3

A write-off only reduces the amount of your taxable income and not a deduction from your tax bill. If someone is writing off 40% of their income then they must be 1099 status (i.e. an indepedant contractor, not an employee of a company), which means they have to pay the entire 15% FICA tax (social security) rather than the 7.5% that "employees" pay."

Answer 4

It allows them to reach the 15% bracket with the current tax shelters, so by %'s they pay less by volume while the rest of America pays 27%.

Answer 5

The rich get richer.

http://www.aflcio.org/corporatewatch/ns09222004.cfm