The Maryland Millionaire Count, Tax Scams, and Train Wrecks

[marmar]

from the Baltimore City Paper:



The Maryland Millionaire Count, Tax Scams, and Train Wrecks
By Edward Ericson Jr. | Posted 11/24/2009


The Sun has some predictable drivel today regarding the state's all-important "millionaire" head-count. Seems it's gone down. By 30 percent! And this is a terrible thing! And it's all because of taxes and Democrats!

Goddamn Democrats.

As the Sun reports, last year the stated number of "millionaires" in the state, for tax purposes, was 4,910. The year before that it was 7,067. The drivel part comes next:

Sen. David R. Brinkley, a Frederick County Republican on the Budget and Taxation Committee, acknowledged that some taxpayers fell to lower income brackets because of the economy but insisted that some fled the state's higher taxes. As a financial planner, he said, he advised one millionaire client to move to Florida.

Way to advise there, Sen. Brinkley!

The problem with the story is it takes at face value Brinkley's claims—just as the media usually does—that slightly higher tax rates on wealthy people cause terrible unintended consequences for normal people. This is not entirely the reporters' fault; one can't light a Cohiba with a $100 bill these days without getting smoke in the eyes of half a dozen "economists" who'll insist that lower taxes on the rich are always the solution to every problem. But the story lacks context and carries no challenge to a crazy theory that's embedded in the criticism of tax-the-rich policies.

First, the context. The 7,067 millionaire count from 2007 represents about .3 percent of all state filers. The 4,910 count from 2008 is about .2 percent. Statistically, about .25 percent of American filers admit to $1 million or more in income. So Maryland's numbers are still in line with national norms.

But these numbers represent a fraction of those who actually netted $1 million or more. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19364