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So?
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the...er-tax-rate-than-workers-20191009-p52yx4.html
A new book-length study on the tax burden of the ultrarich begins with a startling finding: In 2018, for the first time in history, America's richest billionaires paid a lower effective tax rate than the working class.
"The Triumph of Injustice," by economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman of the University of California at Berkeley, presents a first-of-its kind analysis of Americans' effective tax rates since the 1960s. It finds that in 2018 the average effective tax rate paid by the richest 400 families in the country was 23 per cent, a full percentage point lower than the 24.2 per cent rate paid by the bottom half of American households.
In 1980, by contrast, the 400 richest had an effective tax rate of 47 per cent. In 1960, their tax rate was as high as 56 per cent. The effective tax rate paid by the bottom 50 per cent, by contrast, has changed little over time.
The analysis differs from many other published estimates of tax burdens by encompassing the totality of taxes Americans pay: not just federal income taxes but also corporate taxes, as well as taxes paid at the state and local levels. It also includes the burden of about $US250 billion of what Saez and Zucman call "indirect taxes," such as licenses for motor vehicles and businesses.
The analysis, which was the subject of a column in The New York Times on Monday, is also notable for the detailed breakdown of the tax burden of not just the top 1 per cent but also the top 0.1 per cent, the top 0.01 per cent and the 400 richest households.
The focus on the ultrarich is necessary, Saez and Zucman write, because those households control a disproportionate share of national wealth: The top 400 families have more wealth than the bottom 60 per cent of households, while the top 0.1 per cent own as much as the bottom 80 per cent. The top 400 families are a "natural reference point," Zucman says, because the IRS publishes information on the top 400 taxpayers as a group, and other sources, such as Forbes, track the fortunes of the 400 wealthiest Americans.
The relatively small tax burden of the super-rich is the product of decades of choices made by American politicians, some deliberate, others the result of indecisiveness or inertia, Saez and Zucman say. Congress has repeatedly slashed top income tax rates, for instance, and cut taxes on capital gains and estates. Politicians have also failed to provide adequate funding for IRS enforcement efforts and allowed multinational companies to shelter their profits in low-tax countries.
Trump's tipping point
But the tipping point came in 2017, with the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. That bill, championed by President Donald Trump and then-House Speaker Paul Ryan, was a windfall for the wealthy: It lowered the top income tax bracket and slashed the corporate tax rate.
By 2018, according to Saez and Zucman, the rich were already enjoying the fruits of that legislation: The average effective tax rate paid by the top 0.1 per cent of households dropped by 2.5 percentage points. The benefits the bill's supporters promised - higher rates of growth and business investment and a shrinking deficit - have largely failed to materialise.
Not all economists accept Saez and Zucman's analysis. It is based in part on their previous work, along with French economist Thomas Piketty, on the distribution of wealth and income in American society. Other economists have generated estimates of that distribution that show smaller disparities between the country's haves and have-nots. Saez, Zucman and Piketty have defended their research and maintain that their methods are the most accurate.
On the question of tax burdens, Jason Furman, an economics professor at Harvard who chaired the White House Council of Economic Advisers under President Barack Obama, noted that Saez and Zucman did not include refundable tax credits, such as the earned-income tax credit (EITC), in their analysis.
The credit, which is intended to encourage low-income families to work, "is part of the tax code," Furman said. A person who paid $US1,000 in federal income taxes and then received a $US1,500 credit would have a total federal tax burden of minus $US500, but Furman said that under Saez and Zucman's analysis, that person would instead show a burden of $US0. That result would make total tax burdens at the lower end of the income spectrum appear higher than they actually are.
"The best estimates indicate that the tax system is progressive - with the rich paying a higher tax rate than everyone else," Furman said.
Zucman countered that his and Saez's analysis considers the EITC and other credits like it as transfers of income, akin to food stamps or jobless benefits, rather than tax provisions.
"If you start counting some transfers as negative taxes, it is not clear where to stop," he said via email. "Do you treat the EITC as a negative tax? Veterans' benefits? Medicaid? defense spending? . . . There's no clear line, and the results become arbitrary."
There is general agreement among economists, however, that the tax burden of the rich has fallen considerably in recent decades.
"The rich definitely pay less in taxes than they did in the past and less than they should," Furman said.
So?
Does that seem equitable to you?
bootlicker
What are you going to do about it? ? Yeah that'll show them.
That's a reply for sure, but it's not responsive.
You lay huge turds then abandon them. Why would anyone want to have a back and forth with you just to see you melt down into some conspiracy level again then abandon the thread?
Inequality resembles 1929 more than 1979, seems like a legit gripe to me.
The common sense that naturally and of course you're going to do a little better than your daddy, is broken.
Pendulum has been swinging in the direction of free lunch capitalists who pay for elections and dream of impunity, making money while they sleep.
Oh, do you miss me in another thread?
That's a racist question.Oh, do you miss me in another thread?
Sorry I can't answer all of your posts personally, thanks for your interest!
Not at all, just pointing out the successful class war waged by the US financial elite, with their carefully groomed enablers and their untold resources.
Just the way you said that indicates you're likely racist.
I'm listening.
Did you have something to say, or are you just clearing your throat?
PREJUDICED AGAINST WHITE
right?
i had also started a thread on this but didnt comment at the time..
So I would say this is more proof that
A) the trump tax reform was always the blatant pro-1% move most people said it would be at the time
and
B) that the world political system is broken, billionaires/oligarchs/elites go and do whatever they want, corporations merge and merge and mudge their accounting... only a fool would think that dynamic can go on forever, bubbles pop. Its just a matter of what breaks first, the planet or the status quo.
These are just interesting little notes. In the grand scheme of things they don't really move the needle.
I mean stuff like this tells me that this country is doing just fine. Our biggest problem is obesity. Wouldn't worry about small writing.
"The credit, which is intended to encourage low-income families to work"
I mean you're not doing real well with it and it's obvious you have an axe to grind with other economic classes and other races. Possibly even have an axe to grind with your own race. Whatever it is, you're not a rational individual, you certainly don't seem have much of a clinical outlook and have a difficult time discussing things from that perspective.
So when you start off with a guilty verdict against your target and then set about to find evidence, that's not someone who's going to be providing meaningful discussion. Never mind the fact that once shown the error of your ways you abandon it
and you don't want to learn from it. Then you just reset, start over again and wonder why people wont have a dialogue with you.
Might as well be arguing cosmological argument against fundamental Christians.
we know. we've seen your pic.
Zzzzzzzzzing bam boom
sorry. i gotta get up to screaming joey speed.
When will it trickle down?
Why not tax the out them?
https://ips-dc.org/u-s-billionaire-w...g-of-pandemic/
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