German 'rich tax' bill approved (raises highest tax rate to 45% from 42%)

[lindisfarne]

If the US's highest rate were even 42%, we might be able to provide health insurance for everyone.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5160160.stm
German 'rich tax' bill approved
Germany has passed a bill to up the tax rate for the wealthiest earners, after approval in the country's parliament.
The new highest income tax rate will hit 45%, up from 42%, for the biggest earners - those whose taxable income reaches 250,000 euros (£172,000).

The bill, which was passed in the upper houses of parliament, will be effective from 1 January 2007.

The move is aimed at raising 18bn euros from 2007 to 2010 and is part of wider plans to cut Germany's deficit.

Germany has regularly failed to meet EU targets for deficit levels.

Family-owned firms will not be affected by the new law and neither will self-employed individuals, such as doctors or lawyers.
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[dubeskin]

1. Can't our country be like that?

Instead we GIVE tax cuts to the people who need them least!

[Sherman A1]

3. Agreed

[bluestateguy]

2. Angela Merkel went along with this?

I have heard it said that the western European right wing is far more reasonable than our right wing here in America.

[Kellanved]

4. It was one of the conditions for the coalition

Merkel is a classic "do nothing" conservative, incapable of reforms. The Kohl school of governance.

[EST]

5. During the time when the US population was

making the greatest strides toward elimination of poverty, around the time of Johnson's "great society," the top tax rate was 91%!
There were enough loopholes and tax dodges until hardly anyone was paying anything near such rates in real money.

The problem is, now, there are the wide open tax havens, international money manipulation, as well as rates that are too low on the highest incomes.

[acmejack]

6. The rich are too concerned about hoarding their wealth.

The specter of the poor leading decent lives upsets them mightily for some reason.

[papau]

7. Also applied to investment income, this solves so many problems in the US

But our winner take all corporate RW controlled elections, Media controlled by RW, means there'll be a long wait for US citizens for a sound tax policy.

[Greyhound]

8. "If the US's highest rate were even 42%, we might be able to..."

...provide health insurance for everyone."

I thought you might be interested to know this;

For ~10% of our annual military budget, we "could provide clean water, adequate diets, sanitation services, and basic education to every person on the planet" - Confessions of an Economic Hit Man - John Perkins

1998 UN Development Program estimates;
$9 Billion Clean water and sanitation planet-wide
$12 Billion reproductive health-care
$13 Billion adequate diet and general health-care
$6 Billion universal education

And how much is this costing us? 100's of billions? Trillions?

We (all of the first-world nations) are just so inexcusably awful, is it any wonder they hate us enough to kill themselves, just to take some of us with them? :banghead: :cry:

And all of this, just to make a few fabulously wealthy families even more $$$.

[lindisfarne]

9. If $40 billion is all it takes, the Gates/Buffet funds should take care of

it. I'm a little suspicious that $40 billion is all it takes.

But I agree with your sentiment that money would be better spent on helping, rather than killing/maiming, people.

[Monk06]

10. Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad,Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad,

[German-Lefty]

11. Germany's ills

I can't seem to find any numbers about who it actually affects. I do know that about 6 years ago the top tax bracket was around 48% and the SPD (social democrats) and Greens reduced it to 42%. I'm not sure there's going to be much money coming out of it, but it's more a political solution to sell the hike 16%->18% sales tax hike, which of coarse isn't progressive.

Germany's big problem is that they've got ~1/2 state in their GDP, compared with 1/3 in the US. Sure we get some stuff for it, but I think we should be getting more or paying less. Sure we have complete health care coverage, but it's not paid for by income tax. If you work you have to pay for insurance, so it's an extra tax. You also have to pay social security, etc. At the end of the month I see about 50% of my paycheck. After that I get to pay 16% sales tax when buying anything.

This discourages people from using the market. People do a lot of crap themselves. When you move out of an apartment they expect you to paint and renovate it. Sure you could hire someone to do it, but to work to earn the money to hire him and to pay him to do it you'll have paid >50% taxes (and benefits). That combined with the high wages due to organized labor and generous social welfare mean it's cheaper for a engineer to take a few days off work to renovate an apartment that doesn't belong to him, than to hire one of the 4 million unemployed people who are capable of operating an paint brush!