By one measure, federal taxes lowest since 1950

[steve2470]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110207/ap_on_re_us/us_lower_tax_bills

WASHINGTON – Taxes too high?

Actually, as a share of the nation's economy, Uncle Sam's take this year will be the lowest since 1950, when the Korean War was just getting under way.

And for the third straight year, American families and businesses will pay less in federal taxes than they did under former President George W. Bush, thanks to a weak economy and a growing number of tax breaks for the wealthy and poor alike.

Income tax payments this year will be nearly 13 percent lower than they were in 2008, the last full year of the Bush presidency. Corporate taxes will be lower by a third, according to projections by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The poor economy is largely to blame, with corporate profits down and unemployment up. But so is a tax code that grows each year with new deductions, credits and exemptions. The result is that families making as much as $50,000 can avoid paying federal income taxes, if they have at least two dependent children. Low-income families can actually make a profit from the income tax, and the wealthy can significantly cut their payments.

[BlueCheese]

1. I saw that article.

It's by the same reporter who wrote the specious "Social Security is in big trouble!" article two weeks ago, but I don't see anything immediately wrong with this one.

The interesting part is further in, where H&R Block talks about taxes for different households.

• A married couple with two children, including one in college, and a combined income of $50,000 would pay no federal income taxes, instead getting a payment of $734 from the government this year. However, they did better in 2008 when they netted a $1,234 payment from the government. That's because Obama's Making Work Pay credit was worth less to them than the Bush-era economic stimulus payment they received in 2008.

• A single person making $50,000 while paying interest on a student loan would have a 2010 tax bill of $5,325 — a $63 decrease from 2008. The difference is due to an inflation-based increase in the standard deduction and personal exemption.

Yeah, it sucks to be single.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[mike_c]

3. this is why politicians should not allow "taxes" to be politicized...

...and why the republican party, which has built its base by making "opposition to high taxes" one of its signature issues, is so inherently dishonest with its own constituents. It's a dishonest strategy because when left to the people, taxes will almost always seem "too high." Everyone mentally compares the taxes they somehow know they pay, even when they don't have any real sense of how much that actually is, with some mythical amount that's less. There will ALWAYS be a lessor amount as long as anyone pays any taxes, so everyone will always pine for lower taxes-- even when they're already not paying enough to meet their own demands for government services.

It's one thing to politicize government efficiency-- everyone has an interest in efficient government-- but politicizing taxes is the worst possible way to accomplish that because "taxes will ALWAYS be too high" no matter how low they really become. Junkies will always vote for more junk. Americans are money junkies. We are mostly not capable of making rational decisions about things like taxation. That's one of the reasons we need government.

[bobbolink]

4. Interesting... poor folks like me don't get a tax break, and yet we also get programs CUT.

Why does the 'Murkin government hate us poor folk?