The Tax Foundation propaganda would have these poor folks believe that government gets all their meager income through the 108 th day of the year. That’s 11 days for these taxes.Īdd it up, and that’s 47 days or Feb. But let’s generously assume a typical 6% state and local tax burden on half of their income. Of course, even among the poor, not all money is spent on goods. Where the poor get clobbered is consumption taxes, primarily sales taxes on goods. Some states, like Florida, Texas, and Washington, which Trump, Musk, and Bezos claim as their homes, don’t impose income taxes. Millions of American workers pay more in payroll taxes than income taxes, by the way. Using the Tax Foundation’s methodology, half of Americans have paid these payroll taxes in full in 21 calendar days. That means their Social Security and Medicare tax is about 5.7% of their income. Federal income tax for the poorest half, according to the Tax Foundation, was 4% in 2019, so they paid up by Jan.This half of taxpayers collected just 7 pennies out of each dollar of total income reported on federal tax returns.įor the poor half of Americans who must file a tax return, their tax burden goes like this: That group also make piddling incomes, on average $13,745 in 2020. Not so for the poorest half of Americans who file federal income tax returns. That’s because they pay little or no federal income, little or no state income tax, little or no Social Security and Medicare tax, and pay modest sales taxes compared to the cash flowing into their pockets. In fact, using the tax foundation’s own data, “tax freedom day” for the vast majority of Americans occurs sometime in February.Įlon Musk of Twitter, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Donald Trump of the failed insurrection, and some other rich Americans enjoy tax freedom starting moments after we sing Auld Lang Syne. The idea behind this stunt is that the total of federal, state, and local taxes for the year equal what everybody earned or collected in income by the so-called Tax Freedom Day. Why did it fail? Because it lacked the power to tax. We live in the Second American Republic-under our Constitution-because the First American Republic failed after seven years. Now groups like the Free Market Foundation, the Mountain States Policy Center, the Missouri Farm Bureau, and help spread this nonsense. Incidentally, compared to Canada, the European Union, and other countries with advanced economies, our tax burdens are below average. It’s based on abusing facts and simple math to deceive Americans about our burden in supporting our government.įor decades the T ax Foundation, did its best to rile up people against taxes more than to inform them about the wide variations in tax burdens – even among people with the same income and family structure and size. This annual stunt is one of the most misleading and downright intellectually dishonest pieces of propaganda in America. Today, April 18, 2023, is NOT the mythical Tax Freedom Day. A Deception Many Journalists Uncritically Promote
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |