Yes, 47% of Households Owe No Taxes. But Look Closer.

[imurhuckleberry]

Published: April 13, 2010

47%

That’s the portion of American households that owe no income tax for 2009. The number is up from 38 percent in 2007, and it has become a popular talking point on cable television and talk radio. With Tax Day coming on Thursday, 47 percent has become shorthand for the notion that the wealthy face a much higher tax burden than they once did while growing numbers of Americans are effectively on the dole.

Neither one of those ideas is true. They rely on a cleverly selective reading of the facts. So does the 47 percent number.

Given that taxes are likely to be one of the big political issues of the next few years — and maybe the biggest one — it’s worth understanding who really pays what in taxes. Once you do, you can get a sense for our country’s fiscal options. How, in other words, will we be able to close the huge looming gap between the taxes we are scheduled to pay and the services we are scheduled to receive?

The answer is that tax rates almost certainly have to rise more on the affluent than on other groups. Over the last 30 years, rates have fallen more for the wealthy, and especially the very wealthy, than for any other group. At the same time, their incomes have soared, and the incomes of most workers have grown only moderately faster than inflation.

So a much greater share of income is now concentrated at the top of distribution, while each dollar there is taxed less than it once was. It’s true that raising taxes on the rich alone can’t come close to solving the long-term budget problem. The deficit is simply too big. But if taxes are not increased for the wealthy, the country will be left with two options.

It will have to raise taxes even more than it otherwise would on everybody else. Or it will have to find deep cuts in Medicare, Social Security, military spending and the other large (generally popular) federal programs.

Continue reading ... http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/14/business/economy/14leonhardt.html

[DJ13]

1. The one dynamic no article has touched yet is that theres a reason 47% dont pay taxes

They dont make enough money.

Im sure all of those in that 47% would gladly pay taxes if it meant making enough money to live a better life.

[gmoney]

3. why isn't the headline "47% of households too poor to tax?"

that might help paint them as the hardest-hit victims of the economic downturn, rather than making them sound like mooching freeloaders.

[npk]

11. Ss half the country is too poor to pay taxes

With the unemployment rate mostly affecting those same people, would it be logical to assume that at the current rate we are going to see an even larger gap between those who pay taxes and those that do not. In turn causing an even greater shortage of tax revenue down the road, as well as greater cuts to services designed to help then poor. Even with the idea of increasing taxes on the rich, it will still not do anything to put the majority of the unemployed and under employed people back to work.

[Patchuli]

2. Good find

and a thump on the noggin to whoever is unrecommending this one. You must have lots to lose! Maybe you should put your country ahead of your own greed for a change? There's a reason I don't like rich people...

[CTyankee]

4. but that 47% does pay payroll taxes and property taxes.

Income taxes are only one piece of the pie...here in New Haven I must pay a car tax as well collected by the city on its residents...

[zipplewrath]

6. 'Zactly

The poor pay plenty of taxes. Sales taxes, alcohol taxes, tobacco taxes, oil taxes, property taxes, payroll taxes.....

Heck, the EITC is considered a REpayment of some of those taxes. The only reason more folks aren't paying INCOME taxes this year, and many years past, is because in "constant" dollars, THEY ARE MAKING LESS EVERY YEAR.


Sorry for yelling.....

[n2doc]

5. I hate this meme

It is 47% pay no INCOME taxes. They pay plenty in sales, property, and other taxes. There has been a concerted effort by the RW to shift tax burdens towards these and away from income taxes, because they are easier to avoid and proportionally are less important for the rich.


Think about it. A hedge fund manager gets 10 mil and puts it in the bank. How much sales/property/etc taxes does he pay. You get 200 bucks and use it to buy food/gas/entertainment. How much goes to taxes?

[Sal Minella]

7. Again and again I hear that 5% of the people control 50% of the wealth

so why the hell aren't that 5% paying 50% of the taxes we need?

Tax breaks for the wealthiest make no sense at all.

If Warren Buffet thinks it's unfair that his secretary pays a higher tax rate than he does, then obviously the wealthy need to be taxed more.

Lets wait til the 47% have jobs that allow them to put food on the table before we start taxing them.

[miscsoc]

10. "so why the hell aren't that 5% paying 50% of the taxes we need?"

fucking right, that should be the message the left should be pushing. a simple, obviously true message like that.

[jae1227]

8. 49 percent paided no fed income taxes in 2008

Tell that to all those Republicans that say Obama is a socialist.

[mrs_p]

9. we were one of the 47%

the two of us made only 16K as i am a grad student and my hubby was out of work until may of last year. but, of course, we paid all other taxes, including state and property taxes.

[WyLoochka]

12. The key word is "OWE"

47% OWE no income tax on the deadline, tomorrow, 4/15.

That doesn't mean they didn't pay any income tax. For most it was lifted out of their paychecks every two weeks and is long gone.

I don't "owe" - won't have to cut a check or anything.

But that doesn't mean I didn't pay any income tax. They took it on the go, out of every paycheck, interest free.

I paid $4576.44 in income tax for 2009. Wish I could have designated, like the right-wingers with their "I refuse to pay one cent for anyone's abortion", that they couldn't use any of that for war, or keeping people in Guantanamo, or "abstinence education", or private school vouchers, and a whole host of other things.

Let's be careful about plutocrat framing. 47% don't "owe" because they have already paid, unlike the foot dragging plutocrats who will smother us in propaganda - "the poor don't pay their fair share" - and fight with the IRS over every last penny, giving them instead to their accountants and lawyers.