Rick Perry: Middle Income Americans Don't Pay Enough Income Taxes

[mikekohr]

Pay up you deadbeats. Rick Perry says you are not contributing enough to America. And don't forget it's not just Governor Goodhair that feels this way. Just last week a montage of Republicans were spewing this meme on Fox Gnu's. Working People were called, "Moochers, Takers, Deadbeats, Raccoons and irresponsible Animals."
Oh, and they would like your vote and support in November of 2012.

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Okay, here are some facts, courtesy of the Tax Policy Center. They may not allay Mr. Perry’s dismay, but they should assuage the concerns of anyone with a soul.
•Of the 46% of households who don’t pay income tax, nearly 2/3 pay payroll taxes.
•Of the 18% who pay neither income nor payroll taxes, more than half are elderly.
•More than 1/3 have incomes below $20,000. (Note: Ronald Reagan made the decision in 1986 to exempt people with incomes below the poverty line from federal income tax. Twenty-five years later, that still seems like a good call.)
•Only 1% of nontaxpaying households are nonelderly with incomes over $20,000. I’m dismayed about them too governor. Maybe we should close some of the loopholes that allowed almost 1,500 millionaires to escape income tax in 2009
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by Len Burman
read full article @:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/leonardburman/2011/08/18/rick-perry-middle-income-americans-dont-pay-enough-income-taxes/

[bigdarryl]

1. JESUS!!!!

[hedgehog]

2. Any charts that show the combined tax rates for those groups?

[Jackpine Radical]

3. You can eyeball it.

Just sum the red & blue lines (i.e. stack the red line on the blue line) at each income point. For lines that extend below zero, you add a negative %, i.e. subtract the blue line from the red one).

[mikekohr]

4. Ruth Marcus: Rick Perry’s warped tax ‘injustice’

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/rick-perrys-warped-tax-injustice/2011/08/15/gIQAvzwPHJ_story.html

As the Tax Policy Center’s Roberton Williams has explained, “a couple with two children earning less than $26,400 will pay no federal income tax this year because their $11,600 standard deduction and four exemptions of $3,700 each reduce their taxable income to zero. The basic structure of the income tax simply exempts subsistence levels of income from tax.”

The tax code is studded with a costly bevy of deductions and preferences — mortgage interest, employer-sponsored health insurance, retirement savings — that benefit wealthier taxpayers over those with modest incomes. If Perry wants to go after injustice in the tax code, he’ll find ample targets. Failing to tax poor people enough isn’t among
them.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------CHARTS: http://taxpolicycenter.org/taxtopics/federal-taxes-households.cfm

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More than half are elderly

Over one-third are nonelderly with income under $20,000

Only about 1 in 20 is nonelderly with income over $20,000

[BeyondGeography]

5. Yeah, but I'd still rather have a beer with him than the other non-white guy

[mikekohr]

6. You mean the 1/2 white guy? Or the all white guy?

I'm confused.

[BeyondGeography]

7. The less-white-guy than Rick guy

[mikekohr]

8. That would be the President I presume?

I'd rather have a drink with him. That Rick guy is always packing heat. I remember when Dick Cheney shot his buddy in the face. Last thing I want is to get shot and then get the blame for being in the way. That's the way those Rick guys roll.

[BeyondGeography]

9. Would this work better for you if I inserted the sarcasm thingy?

[mikekohr]

10. I'm just being a tool

I'm practicing so I can better understand how the mind of a Republican works.

"Know thy enemy,"

[BeyondGeography]

11. Yeah, me too

:hi:

[LiberalFighter]

12. Every household regardless of income have the same exemptions

based on size of household. Except apparently there is a phase-out for those with income over $250,200.

The purpose of the exemptions was to insulate the minimal amount of income needed to subsist.

Regardless, for 2011 tax return the personal exemption for each in the household that qualifies is $3,700. A family of four would have $14,800 of income exempt from taxation.

In addition to exemptions there is the standard deduction or itemized deductions. For the most part the standard deduction is used by the majority of filers. Married filers can use the standard deduction of $11,400. A family of four would then have $26,200 of income exempt from taxes.

It is the itemized deductions that others can increase the amount of income that is exempt. The more money a person receives the more income they are able to exempt from taxes.

On average tax filers with AGI of $200k have $64k of income exempt.


The important question that should be asked of any politician or candidate when they complain that 46% of households don't pay taxes is to ask them how much of their income is not taxed due to itemized deductions.

Perry 2009 -- Claimed $7,300 in exemptions. Claimed $39,969 itemized deductions.
He received a refund of $6,094.

Perry 2008 -- Claimed $9,380 in exemptions. Claimed $59,200 itemized deductions.
He received a refund of $8,669.

[mikekohr]

13. In 2008 Perry claimed more than twice as much in deductions and exemptions

than I gross in a year.

I'm not sure he's my friend in this fight.