Yes, especially homeowners. But what you spend in insurance in Florida, you will save 4 fold in taxes over Ma.

In Massachusetts a car MUST be registered where it is garage otherwise you are not covered it you get in a accident.

and I suppose up there in New York where YOU LIVE is cheap , maybe you should visit Florida some time if your allowed out of the home

He would probably need to disable the ankle bracelet first. :1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl:

Here we go off on a tangent again. Immigration would drive down labor costs and that would decrease or limit inflation. But, why are we looking at the problem from the viewpoint of the WEALTHY employers? The problem with immigrants is that the US does NOT need or want any more (especially illegal ones that the 1st thing that they do in the US is break our laws.) (They are ILLEGAL.) This means that we as a country do NOT want them. Who are they driving down labor costs for? That is hurting real US citizens that are in the construction industry.
........Real US citizens whose fathers were in the Army and risk their lives. Citizens whose fathers and mothers worked as policemen and women. (As teachers, as nurses, as coaches, as scoutmasters, and etc). The non-real US citizens (aka illegals) - their fathers and mothers worked in some South American country as whatever and many have ZERO skills. They were NOT EDUCATED in the US school system so they speak marginal English. And they did NOT have years of getting the proper shots in school.
Why should these illegals get to compete for a job with a US citizen that may have been in the US Army while they were in the Nicaraguan Army? Fair is fair and the US is overcrowded as it is at 350 million people. US roads and highways, Airline infrastructure, and weak public school system are all OVER STRETCHED with too many people and U S quality of LIFE is in a downward spiral and unable to solve many important problems.
.........The US competes with many other 1st world countries........ and illegal aliens that can't even speak English are only going to make ALL of US society WORSE!

LEGAL, organized, planned immigration does.

Why does the minimum wage get raised? Ordinary people/workers look at the life that the top US 1% has and asks why did the rich get a tax break and NOT the poor? Why give a special tax break to the Zuckerbergs, Bezos, and Elon Musks of the world? The prior admin made that happen! Ordinary people have NOT gotten a minimum wage increase in over 30 years. Finally, recently, the job market has begun to favor the worker and they can and will ask for more wages. (unfortunately, a recession may be in the future, which would erase the worker's gains.)
......Please, try to feel good about the ordinary worker FINALLY being in a position of having some TRIVIAL POWER.

Just what "tax break" would that be????

The top 1% of earners paid 40% of all income tax collected in 2018

The top 10% paid 68%

and the top 53% paid 100% of all income tax

So maybe those "ordinary workers" can climb the ladder and start paying THEIR "fair share"

You know you are ruining his gospel with facts, don’t you?:clap2:

Well then let's go the other way around. The lowest income that actually pays tax, is taxed at an 18% rate. That lowest income gets the standard deduction, because they don't earn enough to itemize.

Let's apply that to ALL income earners. EVERYONE pays 18%, and none of them get to itemize. Standard deduction only.

I'm okay with that.

No, 10%. BTW, I take the standard deduction, as do many people unless you have a mortgage. 90% of tax payers take the standard deduction.

10% is fine too. Make all the uber wealthy - that other 10% of taxpayers, take the standard deduction, and pay 10%.

Good luck convincing anyone to pass THAT through senate and congress though. The top 5% of wealth in this country itemize enough that their tax obligation is much less than 10%, and some of them pay nothing at all in taxes.

So sure - bring it on. 10% tax, with standard deduction ONLY, no more itemizing at all, for everyone.

Doubtful. One way to drive your tax rate down is to not have W-2 income but realize capital gains since the tax rate is typically lower than W-2 income. For example, Elon Musk typically has no tax liability since he has no W-2 income. However, when he does sell stock he does pay a lot of tax - $11 billion is 2021. Max capital gains rate is 20% (can be up to 28% for some assets). Regardless, the upper 10% basically pay the vast majority of the taxes. Look it up or read post #123.

You mean the lowest income that actually pays income tax, since the lowest 47% PAY NOTHING

And the 47.1th percentile actually pays closer to 6% on average, depending on kids/age, etc

Again, statistics from the IRS---THE TOP 1% OF ALL EARNERS PAY 40% OF ALL INCOME TAXES.

And that same 1% owns more wealth than the entire middle class. Statistic from the Federal Reserve.

So what???? Is that a reason to punish success?? And in turn give it away to losers????

You mean the ones who worked hard, invested money (i.e. took financial risks), and started new companies that developed innovative goods and services, as well as jobs, for the other 99% ?

Well that's a tad over-generalized.
When the former president who brags about his great wealth, which he estimates at "several billion" is found to have paid $750 in taxes one might wonder about a few things,

1. a billion dollars invested in a 2% CD, (you don't have to be to be a stable genius to find that rate of return in "the world's greatest economy") would generate 40 MILLION dollars. That's ONE billion invested that way. $750 on 40 Million is a tax rate of
.001875%. Now that is a nice tax rate, isn't it?

2. why do we tax income instead of wealth? Because the wealthiest people make the rules, so a father of three, working 60 hours a week who seldom gets to see his kids because his life is evaporating while he's working so hard making 200K,, gets taxed at 40%, while a multi-billionaire who lifts not a finger to make 40MILLION in invested income has a tax rate of .001875%....

Yeah, it's great to be the ones with the power to make the rules.

I don't have a dog in this fight. Just illustrating how easy it is to cherry pick.

Speaking of over-generalizations-------WOW

Since that top 1% pays 40% of all income tax, do you really think they average a tax rate of .001875%????? Really?????

Those numbers are just talking points for class warfare and socialistic thinking. I would either tax the 47% at some low rate, even if it is only $10, so at least they have some skin in the game. Alternatively, a constitutional amendment that limits the vote to net taxpayers. If you pay nothing, you can pretty much guarantee you will vote for those that promise you the most "freebies" (ie: other people's money)

The top 1% paying 40% of all income tax is NOT "cherry picking", it is a fact directly from the IRS.

Could be because the base wealth as been taxed already and will probably be taxed again at death. Maybe.

Cherry picking does not mean the statistic is false. It is a common technique to support one point of view without giving equal weight to the entire context.

In addition to the fact that "wealth" is already taxed at least once if not more:

Person A scrimps and saves, makes prudent choices, lives within their means and accumulates some degree of "wealth". Maybe to enjoy retirement, maybe to pass something on to their kids, but in either case have been responsible citizens.

Person B spends every penny they ever earn---has impulse buying, gets sports cars, a house they can't afford, runs up credit cards and saves nothing, relying on social security and the good will of others when they stop working.

So who is rewarded and who is screwed by a "wealth tax"??? Fair???? I don't think so.

The "entire context":

top 1% paying 40% of all income tax

bottom 99% paying 60% of all income tax.

:coolsmiley:

OK, here's the context:

Who is paying a hugely disproportionate share of the tax burden?????

It is not a "point of view", it is a FACT

Null hypothesis - Who is paying their disproportionate share of the tax burden ?

Interesting. Here's the definition of a null hypothesis:

The null hypothesis states there is no relationship between the measured phenomenon (the dependent variable) and the independent variable.

So, how does this apply to THE FACT that the top 1% pay 40% of income taxes? What are the two variables????? No sale.

Just compare the tax brackets and tax % of today to those of 1950 (when the middle class was KING). And it is easy to see that upper-income taxpayers control the US. In other words, fewer and FEWER people (the upper 1%) are controlling everything in the US. As less and less people have more and more power.......WHAT DO YOU END UP WITH.........a dictatorship like Hitlers or the current Russian despot. America is headed that way, I hope smart people like the other poster realize this simple fact.

Nice post (not)---why am I not surprised

A flat tax is also something that would be enjoyed by the uber-rich. The only fair federal tax system WAS AND I DO MEAN WAS.......the TRUE PROGRESSIVE tax system used by the US of A in the 1950s. Note to those who don't know what progressive means.......it means that those with the higher income pay a bigger tax % than those with lower incomes. It is the American fair way ..........and it is DEAD today.........Look at the Zuckerbergs and Bezos. They are the beginning of rich industrial fascists that have taken over America.

Bezos paid $1.5 BILLION in fed taxes...........how much more do you want him to pay??

Might be a low %, but it's still $1.5 BILLION.

:popcorn::popcorn:

All I can say is, Thank You Mr. B.

Our progressive tax is ANYTHING BUT "FAIR" . It punishes success, it is Robin Hood socialism taking away from those who worked to succeed and handing it over to those who contributed nothing. It rewards failure and laziness at the expense of those that have contributed. How many people do those "rich industrial fascists" employ??? How much do they contribute to charities. And how many are employed by the 47% that pay nothing and live off the government teat?

Thank you. And that's the fallacy of those who want them to pay even more---We don't pay our bills in "percentage points". Federal employees don't deposit "percentages" every week. We pay in DOLLARS, and 1.5 billion is plenty of them. Geez, the mentality of those that think they deserve a piece of his pie simply because they were born.

keep dreaming.

Not dreaming........How was the base wealth generated & not taxed???

Don't give minor exceptions...........explain how the vast majority of the base wealth was not taxed.

I'm curious.

Exclude paper wealth.

True that and ANY country WITHOUT WEALTH for the average middle-class citizen is a country that probably will NOT EXIST in about 3 more years. Middle-class wealth brings stability and peace to a nation. Lack of middle-class WEALTH brings CHAOS and instability to any country.

And WHY is "the capital gains rate typically lower"? Because the RICH lawyer-Congress-people voted to RETAIN their own richness at the expense of the middle-class and stability for the US as a country. That is WHY the US had a strong middle-class in the 40s through about 1975, but then the RICH politicians started nibbling away at the middle-class. Industrial factories move away from the Northeast to the South in order to AVOID unions, then moved to Mexico, then moved to Vietnam, and eventually China.
.......So, HUMOROUSLY, to avoid those TERRIBLE THINGS called UNIONS, we made our potential enemy, China, VERY RICH. Way to go Washington geniuses.

Great point!