A Question for Republicans, Democrats and Independants and Other Parties?

Question

There is so much disagreement over who pays their fair share of Taxes, so I ask you for your opinion on the following:

What would a person or families yearly income or net worth to be to be classified as:

1. Lower Class
2. Middle Class
3. Upper Class
4. Rich.

And who do you think pays the largest percentage of the Total Tax Revenue each year?
Is it fair? Why or Why not?

Wow, what awesome answers!!!!! very thoughtful. Crusin...Your analogy puts a very coomon sense approach to the matter. I find that there are many different ideas as to who the Middle Class really is. People don't realize the in order for the "Rich" to get a Tax Break, they must spend money.
Using Sales Tax as an example was good also. As food, rent, medical ect... are not subject to tax, it is spending on "Stuff" that creates tax revenue. A lot to think about here. Thank you!!!
And hey, not one person here used a derogatory comment about anyones Politics or Beliefs. Thank you all for sticking to the point. This is the type of discussion where answers are bourne, not hate.
Again I thank you all.

Answer 1

Maybe this will help . I would much rather see a flat tax rather then the way it is set up now.

The rich and taxes


This little analagy by Walter E. Williams not only shows the absurdity of the rich getting an unfair tax break but one of the reasons they take their bussinesses elsewhere.
Suppose that everyday 10 men go to dinner. The bill for all ten comes to $100. If it was paid the way we pay our taxes, the first four men would pay nothing; the fifth would pay $1; the sixth would pay $3; the seventh $7; the eighth $12; the ninth $18. The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
The 10 men ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement until the owner threw them a curve. Since you are all such good customers, he said, I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20. Now dinner for the 10 only costs $80.
The first four are unaffected. They still eat for free. Can you figure out how to divvy up the $20 savings among the remaining six so that everyone gets his fair share? The men realize that $20 divided by 6 is $3.33, but if they subtract that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would end up being paid to eat their meal.
The restaurant owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.
And so the fifth man paid nothing, the sixth pitched in $2, the seventh paid $5, the eighth paid $9, the ninth paid $12, leaving the tenth man with a bill of $52 instead of $59. Outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.
"I only got a dollar out the $20," declared the sixth man pointing to the tenth, "and he got $7!"
"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got seven times more than me!
"That's true," shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $7 back when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks."
"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor."
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night he didn't show up for dinner, so the nine sat down and ate without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They were $52 short!
And that, boys and girls, is how the tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up at the table anymore. There are lots of good restaurants in Switzerland and the Caribbean

Answer 2

Bret is incorrect as far as the income tax goes. But static taxes like the sales tax do tend to punish those in lower income brackets, like the poor and middle class. While it's true that the middle class feels the hardest sting (because 20% of a more meager income is much worse than 50% of a very large income), the income tax definitely hits the rich in terms of raw numbers and percentage of income.

The rich pay the largest percent of total income tax revenue each year. (The richest 1% of Americans pays 35% of all income taxes. The richest 10% pays more in taxes than the bottom sixty percent.)

No, it's not fair. Nobody should have to pay income tax - rich or poor. Yes, I'm a libertarian, so I realize my whole policy of freedom is a little unpopular with the central planners.

P.S. A lot of small-business owners claim an income of a few hundred thousand dollars a year (or more), but most of that money goes toward business costs. They appear 'rich' to the federal government, but they're actually more middle income. Punitive income taxes punish these people the most. Not everyone who claims that much income is an 'executive.'

Answer 3

The question of taxes should be looked at what the income is, what percentage of the income is paid in taxes, and how much do you get out of taxes.
Lets see who benefits most from the spending of taxes, I'll give you some examples - Police the rich, and upper class benefit the most from this. The lower and middle class get more harassed by them then helped. Police don't even tend to show up for 911 calls at certain neighborhoods.
Roads and infrastructure where do you find the best of these in rich and upper class neighborhoods.
USA is a communal property society by advocating to eliminate or reduce taxes for the rich and still us everything provided by it is stealing.

Answer 4

There's no way to determine class based on income . A family income of $30,000 in a rural area is considered decent, but not in an urban area such as New York .

The rich pay the most taxes and about 90% of total tax revenues .

Answer 5

In my very humble personal opinion --

*if* you were to separate classes by income into four groups, i'd place them in the following order (i'm talking total household incomes, combined if the case warrants):

1. LC = 40k and below per annum
2. MC = 40k-90k
3. UC = 90k-200k
4. "rich" = 200k and up


Largest percentage of tax revenues? the lowest classes, because there are more of them.
If you talk in terms of total tax revenue in dollars, the rich pay the most.

Is it fair? It's certainly not perfect, but it would be unwise to characterize the burden on the poor as "unfair" only from the standpoint of percentage of tax revenues paid without considering that there are much more of them to pay it... if you talk in terms of total dollars, I'd think that the rich pay out (in dollars) much more than anyone else.

So maybe it's fair and maybe it's not, but I couldn't make that assessment with these figures

Answer 6

Lower class are the minimum wage earners, middle class are the superiors, upper class are the company executives and the rich are the company owners.

Taxes for the lower class must be small and the tax rate must increase as the income of the person increases. Government must implement progressive rates of taxes in order to have a fair application of taxation.

Answer 7

The middle class pays the lions share of taxes, as a percentage of DISPOSABLE income.

In other words, if you make $50,000 a year, and the government takes 20%, you have $40,000 to live on. If you make $1,000,000 a year, and the government takes 50%, you have $500,000 to live on.

EDIT: The Orange is incorrect. A sales tax allows for ZERO loop holes. Businesses pay taxes on every product they buy, the rich on every dollar they spend on yachts and airline tickets. Every dollar NOT spent on food and shelter or health care is taxed. Those in the "lower class" have very little expenses that wouldn't be exempt, while the rich have very little that WOULD be exempt.

Who do taxes bite the hardest? Not the rich, as we see. Not the poor, who don't pay taxes. The middle class, for whom every percentage point is significant.

A consumption (sales) tax is the only completely fair tax. Exempt food, shelter, and health care. Eliminate ALL other taxes and fees.