Are the wealthy really taxed less than their secretaries?

[MrSplitshot]

Here ya go boys...

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/ap-f...n-secretaries/

[kydonky]

Here ya go boys...

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/ap-f...n-secretaries/

I am not going to sign up for a newsletter to read the above article.

The short answer is in many cases. The middle class bares the highest burden.

If the secretary has 4 kids she probably pays no tax. But if she is married and she and her husband make a middle income yes they can be taxed at a highr rate.

For instance, they probably pay the full 7%. FICA on their entire earnings. Someone making $200,000.00 a year only pay 7% on the first $100,000.00. They end up paying 3.5% FICA while the secretary pays 7% FICA. There are no deductions for FICA payments.

Depending on the source of income, capitol gains is taxed at 15% and wages are taxed on a scale with the top % of 35%. I usually end up paying 23% effective tax rate + FICA ( I am far from rich).

Now all of you retired people out there, here is how you are being ripped.

You have an IRA, an annunity, a private pension. These are investments as much as any mutual or stock fund. But when you get payments from these they are treated as regular income and you can pay as much as 35% tax on these investments. But if you sell stocks or mutual fund shares your tax is capped at 15%. That's really fair huh.

I have not seen a tax overhaul plan from either party, but the tax system is way out of balance. There are more tax breaks and favorable tax laws for the extremely wealthy than for the middle class. No one is going to avoid paying taxes (especially me), but I think the tax laws could be more fairer than they are now.

[MrSplitshot]

I didn't have to subscribe to a newsletter to read the article. Weird.

[RoadToad]

It IS weird. Last time Geo posted a link to an article at the Blaze site, I couldn't view it without signing up for Glenn Beck's newsletter. This one I could get to. The gist of it is this:

"President Barack Obama makes it sound like there are millionaires all over America paying taxes at lower rates than their secretaries. “Middle-class families shouldn’t pay higher taxes than millionaires and billionaires,” Obama said Monday. “That’s pretty straightforward. It’s hard to argue against that.”
The data tells a different story. On average, the wealthiest people in America pay a lot more taxes than the middle class or the poor, according to private and government data. They pay at a higher rate, and as a group, they contribute a much larger share of the overall taxes collected by the federal government."


But all it says it "according to private and government data." It never even names the sources of these "private and government data," let alone give a link or produce any actual figures.

That said, I can't say I've seen figures that prove the opposite, either. I guess what it comes down to is what percentage of millionaires receive what percentage of income from wages, and what percentage from investments (capital gains).

[DJD]

Right now it's his secretary. At campaign time it will be a poor struggling black woman with three kids.

I don't believe much of anything that comes from obamys pie hole. So with that he is playing with numbers to help his class warfare message.

But seriously, RT is right about the income source but noone wants to actually know the details because the headlines that Barry spews sound better for his attack on wealthy people.