Arkansas Blog

And it's a very safe bet every single one of those cheats voted for Bush.

Poor people don't pay taxes in this country. If you make less than 50 grand a year, own a home,and have kids you don't pay any taxes. You get it all back.

news broke about the Bush administration cutting a substantial portion of the IRS staff responsible for auditing the tax returns of the wealthiest Americans.

They don't even bother trying to hide it anymore.

If the rich don't pay taxes, and the poor don't pay taxes, let's see...who does that leave to pay the bills?

Poor people don't pay taxes in this country. If you make less than 50 grand a year, own a home,and have kids you don't pay any taxes. You get it all back.
Posted by: Taxpayer | August 1, 2006 12:48

This is a popular myth. The fact is, even if someone like this does get all of his/her federal income tax withholding back -- and plenty of them don't, as it depends on several factors -- they certainly don't get their FICA taxes back, even if they have fourteen kids and only $20K in income. And where do you think that FICA tax goes? In a "lock box," waiting to flow back to them when they finally qualify for social security? HA-HA-HA-HA!!! Hell no, it doesn't. It goes into the General Fund, after a worthless "I.O.U." is printed for the social security administration. These Republican off-shore tax cheats won't even pay for the paper those I.O.U.'s are printed on. So, there. Your lie is hereby exposed. The mega-rich Republicans are making all this noise about how unfair the so-called "death tax" is, and many of them aren't even paying their damned taxes while they're alive. But, boy, they wave the American flag and holler about patriotism more than anyone else, don't they? Come here and let me shove an American Apple Pie up your ass.

Don't assume that tax evaders are all Republican. There are plenty of Democrat tax evaders as well. I suspect that its fairly even. This is why Senator John Kerry and his wife did not want to release their tax returns. If I remember correctly, President Bush paid a much greater percentage of his income in taxes than Senator John Kerry.

I believe a substantial part of the blame for the tax evasion is the "punish the rich" tax policies enacted by years of Democrats. Tax policy should be designed to maximize revenue rather than to punish the successful. One of the reasons that reducing some taxes results in increased revenues is that it leads to better compliance.

Pretty good except for the worthless I.O.U. Those happen to be T-Bills. Just ask the Chinese if they think they are worthless. They are floating half a trillion a year in our debts for those. Sooner or later, its all there is of value.

Poor people don't pay taxes in this country. If you make less than 50 grand a year, own a home,and have kids you don't pay any taxes. You get it all back.
Posted by: Taxpayer | August 1, 2006 01:31 PM

Gee, I need to go back and amend all those tax returns I did last year on everyone who made less than $50K, had kids, owned a house, and didn't get all of their federal withholding back. You've said they do, and said it several times, so I must be mistaken. Just like I was mistaken when I was skeptical about the WMD's in Iraq.

Punish the rich tax policy. What a laugh. Good excuse for lieing and cheating though.

There have been 2 big ideas to help make taxes fairer.
1) The flat tax (10%)
2) The National Sales Tax

The flat tax sounds good, but again, you will still have the problem of people hiding money.

The sales tax is good because it catches everyone (even crooks like drug lords), because everyone has to buy things (you can't steal everything).

Some say a state/national sales tax takes away from a community being able to add a tax to help build a new school building or need city park, but if done right, it could work.

You could still cut the tax on groceries, and make a big tax for luxary items like expensive cars and jewlery (you know, the stuff that you don't need to live) and a small percentage on things like cleaning supplies and cosmetics, and a medium sales tax on stuff like bulding supplies and electronics.

Anon 01:37...I'm with you. Consumption tax is the way to go. It would eliminate all loopholes. NO IRS, NO Tax lawyers, NO tax returns, NO death tax, No cheating, (even these lazy Libs on this blog would have to pay a consumption tax on their cheap beer)...You can read about it on: fairtax.org

Since our government is increasingly turning a blind eye to all the rich tax cheats, many more middle-class taxpayers are going to cheat now. The IRS largely depends on the "honor system" for compliance, by their own admission. But caution should be taking when doing this. Some kinds of cheating are more easily detectable than others.

Greed instead of gratitude. Talk about the dumbing down of America.

"Punish the rich" tactics are propaganda that rich & wealthy lobby to politicians so that the average-joe gets involved and cares about something that plainly does not involve them.

The "estate tax" was turned into the "death tax". Nice word choice. Sound like propaganda to you? There's no such thing as a death tax. They invented those words! It's called the estate tax and every country in the world has such a tax!

Don't assume that tax evaders are all Republican...
Posted by: George

I can't imagine anybody making that assumption. Tax evasion is party neutral.

Joe Schmoe's tax liability is simply that, a tax liability. Thurston Howell, III's tax liability is "punishment for being successful." Oh, boo-hoo.

Hey Dottie..Did you keep the tax cut money President Bush gave you since 2001? You did keep it didn't you?. As a good Liberal you were supposed to send it back to the IRS. Your socialist party status depends on your answer Sugar!!!

Dottie...If uncle Bill passed away and left you 8 million dollars, are you telling me you would gladly fork over $4,500,000 of it to the theiving IRS. Or..Say had $8,000,000 and was killed and you had three children. You telling me you would rather the IRS to take away $4,500,000 from those kis? Answer that question.

hey Anon 2:31...Dottie won't answer that kind of question...These Libs can't answer that question truthfully. It is the one thing that stumps them. They fight among themselves on this subject.

These moronic "Hey, Dottie" taunts are what passes for political discourse nowadays. No wonder so many intelligent people are tuned out, apolitical, and apathetic.

Typical liberals to call it cheating for people to shelter their money legally.

The name estate tax is enitrely misleading. When income is earned there is an income tax. When a sale occurs there is a sales tax. When an estate, commonly known as wealth, has been created, the owner has to DIE bedore there is any "estate" tax due on his/her property. The actions or events that trigger these taxes are earnings, sales and DEATH. The death tax advocates believe that death is a taxable event. I don't and think it's immoral.

If the NY Times is outraged at these alleged tax cheats, then they should editorialize about a solution such as one vote per dollar of tax paid. No taxes paid, you can't vote. Just like voting one's common equity shares of a company. That seems fair and I know many readers of this blog have a sense of fairness.

Did you keep the tax cut money President Bush gave you since 2001?
Posted by: Anonymous

That's a silly question. I'll gladly give mine back if everybody else returns theirs, but it wouldn't be fair for me to return mine if the trolls keep theirs.

We're all in this together and everybody should be treated equally and taxed fairly to pay our country's debts.

are you telling me you would gladly fork over $4,500,000 of it to the theiving IRS?
Posted by: Anonymous

Another term for "IRS" is "US Treasury" and another term for that is "the people of the United States".

It's pretty un-American, and pretty despicable, to enjoy the benefits of living in this country but be so resentful of paying our country's expenses. If you don't want to pay your part, I'll borrow a line from your own playbook and ask you to go live somewhere else!

Do you ever have anything better to do with your life, troll?

Your analogy is ridiculous. Nobody likes or wants to pay taxes. Nobody gladly "forks" them over. We don't donate to the government the same way we do to the guys in santa hats ringing a bell outside Target every December. But we do it, because we're paying out part to live in this country. We're paying our part to have schools, paying out part to have roads, paying our part to have emergency services. I'm sure you have no problem investing in the stock market, why do you have such a problem with investing in America?

Also, I would have no sympathy if someone "only" inherited 3.5 million dollars. I'd say the kids would be more than fine with that much money.

"Dottie...If uncle Bill passed away and left you 8 million dollars, are you telling me you would gladly fork over $4,500,000 of it to the theiving IRS. Or..Say had $8,000,000 and was killed and you had three children. You telling me you would rather the IRS to take away $4,500,000 from those kis? Answer that question"

Actually, the tax would be only $2.76 million. Anon forgot to subtract the $2 million exemption that every estate gets (which is why such a tiny percentage of estates get taxed).

He also seemed to have taxed the entire $8 mil at 56%. The rate this year is 46% and will drop to 45% next year.

Anon: At least check the IRS web site before blogging. It only take a minute to get the facts.

http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/article/0,,id=112782,00.html

If anyone wants to see what their estate would have to pay, all you have to do is fill in the blanks on the site:

http://www.smartmoney.com/tax/homefamily/index.cfm?story=estatetax

Would I be happy about giving 50% to gov't. That's not the question, dumbass. The point is - it's the law! There are a lot of laws that are sometimes unfair, not perfect. Get over it. So, since you're rich, and you don't like the law, you can change it, or dodge it. That's the point that we're talking about.

Would I be too upset if my kids or whomever only got 4.5 million dollars. I think they'd be all right.

Geez. Fight for a cause that affects you. Don't stand up for the top .5 of the country. You are cleary misguided.

Typical liberals to call it cheating for people to shelter their money legally.
Posted by: Anonymous

If it's legal, it's not cheating.

Tax evasion is illegal.
Tax avoidance is not.

Tax avoidance has always been a part of American culture - just ask Senator Kerry and his extremely wealthy wife.

"Typical liberals to call it cheating for people to shelter their money legally."

One of the problems with the current tax code is that it has been amended so many times as special favors to the rich, powerful and politically connected that the result is something that most people do not see as being fair in any sense of the word.

We would be better with a flat tax-one rate on any income no matter what the source with no deductions than the farce of what they would like you to think of as fair.

Right now it is the embodiment of the golden rule-those who have the gold set the rules.

...Did you keep the tax cut money President Bush gave you since 2001? You did keep it didn't you?
...Your socialist party status depends on your answer Sugar!!!

Posted by: Anonymous | August 1, 2006 02:25 PM

No wonder the state of Arkansas has it's hayseed reputation with backwater small town B.S. like Anonymous-2:25

"We would be better with a flat tax-one rate on any income."

A flat tax would to nothing to solve the problem of defining what is "income".

Most tax avoidance schemes involve hiding income.

Fed Up: Please explain how a single tax rate would make income hiding any less desirable. And while you are at it, please define "income". Don't forget things such as capital gains, oil and gas royalties, gifts, investment losses, 401Ks, IRAs, etc. And what about deductions?

A single tax rate would
We only have six tax rates today (10%
15%, 25%, 28%, 33%, and 38%).

Consumption Tax will cure the whole problem...fairtax.org
No Income Tax, just a fixed rate on everything we buy. It would be fixed every year based on what it takes to run this country. Buy a Cadillac, you pay more tax than a guy who buys a Honda. Simple. Makes too much sense. That's why it will never happen.

Get Hick..You won't answer her question will you...Answer it Lazy boy.

Dottie...you never did answer the question...just for the record: She wouldn't answer. So we assume she kept the tax cut. Must be a good republican in her somewhere...She just don't know it yet....Ah..victory !!

Spirit..well at least you admitted you kept the Presidents tax cut money. Good for you. You helped the economy by putting it back into circulation...Only bad thing for you, you have officially been stripped of your membership to the Socialist Party of Arkansas. Sad..

arkie...the top rate was 28% when Clinton took office. He raised it to almost 40%.

..Did you keep the tax cut money President Bush gave you since 2001? You did keep it didn't you?

Posted by: Anonymous | August 1, 2006 02:25 PM

What tax cut? As a working, middle-class American, my taxes have gone UP over the past six years. Do you mean that paltry tax rebate check I got a couple of years ago, that came nowhere close to covering my tax increases? All Bush did was toss me a dime, and charge me a dollar for the privilege.

You'll have to forgive Anonymous -4:19~32 PM

He counts eggs in a basket whether cracked, rotten or broken, he's a good chicken-plucking-Republican.
Get out of the Sun Anonymous you could fry an egg on that dome of yours.

Why do Republicans hate America? I teach my kids to pay their fair share.

If you weren't living in America, you wouldn't have that money. So shut up.

Or, if your argument is that you'd have the same amount of money if you lived somewhere else, shut up and move there.

I'm sick of greed being labeled conservatism and patriotism when in fact it is neither.

I'm sick of greed being labeled conservatism and patriotism when in fact it is neither.
Posted by: Anonymous Troll 32

Maybe your sentiments get you labeled a troll on some conservative blogs*, but you're certainly not one here!

*Do conservative blogs call liberals "trolls"? I've never visited a conservative blog.

I'm all for a flat tax that would eliminate these incentives and streamline everything. It would also allow us to cut government spending on unnecessary auditors. Taper it at the bottom so those in poverty still aren't paying taxes and level it off at the point people make $30,000 a year and up. Democrats oppose the hell out of this much more fair way of doing things, so Bush isn't the only one to blame.

There does need to be some sort of tax reform before the Alternative Minimum Tax wreaks havoc for middle class Americans. Like the estate tax much of the real problem is laws are passed without tying them to inflation meaning taxes targeted at the wealthy will eventually hit the middle class.

The real estate industry will never, ever allow a flat tax, because that would mean eliminating the mortgage interest deduction. Wall Street also will never allow it, since eliminating the advantage capital income has over regular income hurts both the businesses they are in and the businesses they work for.

So, nice idea, but it's not going to happen. The conservatives give it a lot of lip service, but when push comes to shove they'll vote with their pocketbooks.

Spirit,

I am an equal opportunity troll.

Ahhh...equal op-poot-toon-ity....

Those that keep bringing up John Kerry's rich wife need to remember she inherited that money from her first husband who was a Republican.

Anon 4:24, you're a dork. "Ah, victory." What a life you must lead. Your ONLY victory is a blog post.

Congratulations. I sure hope you haven't reproduced. I'm generally anti-abortion, but I'd make a special provision in my belief system to make room for aborting any future offspring that result from your flacid premature ejaculation.

Dottie...have you tried any of the new P.M.S. drugs that are new on the market. Maby they can help you Babe. Moving out of Hillcrest might help also. Your anger might be caused by having to be a liberal.

Tax Cut Makes Women Pay

http://www.tompaine.com/print/tax_cut_makes_women_pay.php