What should the top income tax rate be?

[markbot]

I consider the top income tax rate to be quite high for NYC residents.

35% federal
+12.4% social security
+2.9% medicare
+8.97% (NY state)
+3.68% (NY City)
=63%

For social security and medicare, only half the amount I list is deducted from a paycheck, but the employer has to match it. If the employer didn't match it then it could have used those funds to pay you directly.

This doesn't even include sales tax, property tax, gas tax, bottled water tax, special taxes on your utility and telephone bill etc. There is also the 45% estate tax (death tax) for those unlucky (lucky) enough to be worth several million.

[kindlekitten]

I believe the estate tax has been made obsolete

[happy_terd]

I wouldnt mind as much if they were simply honest with us.

10% People who sit on their lazy butts and we have to take care of them tax
25% Not from this country driving up the health care costs tax



Call it like it is.

[markbot]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

I believe the estate tax has been made obsolete

There is no estate tax in 2010 officially. However, there will be an estate tax in 2011 and later....as the tax break will expire at the end of the year. we expect to see an increase in the number of deaths in 2010. lol.

[kindlekitten]

I thought it was being done away with for good?

[TGS]

It depends on what rate is needed to achieve a fairer society.

[GeoffC]

Until the riots start.

[CazMar]

Here for comparison are Australia's 2009/10 rates:
Taxable income = Tax on this income

0 – $6,000 =Nil

$6,001 – $35,000 = 15c for each $1 over $6,000

$35,001 – $80,000 = $4,350 plus 30c for each $1 over $35,000

$80,001 – $180,000 = $17,850 plus 38c for each $1 over $80,000

$180,001 and over = $55,850 plus 45c for each $1 over $180,000

Not sure how this compares with USA? We also have a tax on purchases, but nothing on fresh food and some other essentials.

[Ea]

Originally Posted by CazMar

Not sure how this compares with USA? We also have a tax on purchases, but nothing on fresh food and some other essentials.

No, it's difficult to compare between countries, because it varies so much what you get for it - and to that we can add what you expect to get, and what you feel in total you get out of paying tax.

So I haven't replied to the poll.

[beppe]

who started this thread?

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by beppe

who started this thread?

markbot (NYC) - very relevant to the remainder of the Globe ....

[beppe]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

markbot (NYC) - very relevant to the remainder of the Globe ....

I thought it might be so. But as his post does not mention the poll, I thought that his was the first answer. Silly of me.

Indeed I found a general question like the one polled particularly ... Particularly ... what could I say non offensive, but sharp enough, not lenient but accommodatingly disapproving, not indifferent but qualifying, ... Peachy, no. I can do better. Fruity. Again. Corny. Nah. Squashy. I like that. A squashy question.

Well, NYC is still the bellybutton of the whole wide world.

Go NYC Go

[MJK2111]

I'd prefer a flat tax on income of 15%. No forms, no deductions, no loopholes, blah, blah, blah.

[DMcCunney]

Everyone complains about how high taxes are. Part of the problem is there is no direct connection between revenue and expense. When a legislator proposes a bill that will require the government to spend money, it doesn't specify where the money will come from. I've wondered, on occasion, about a law that would require legislators to say how the government would get what they wanted to spend.

But the more interesting question isn't what the tax rate should be: it's what the government should be doing with the money. Reducing takes by any significant amount would require reducing government spending. What would you advocate the government not do to reduce spending, and why?
______
Dennis

[TGS]

Originally Posted by beppe

I thought it might be so. But as his post does not mention the poll, I thought that his was the first answer. Silly of me.

Indeed I found a general question like the one polled particularly ... Particularly ... what could I say non offensive, but sharp enough, not lenient but accommodatingly disapproving, not indifferent but qualifying, ... Peachy, no. I can do better. Fruity. Again. Corny. Nah. Squashy. I like that. A squashy question.

Well, NYC is still the bellybutton of the whole wide world.

Go NYC Go

Does one have to accumulate a certain number of posts, or a certain number of karma points, before one receives the special key that enables one to unambiguously understand beppe's, undoubtedly brilliant, posts?