2019 and 2020 tax brackets

[Cajunhunter67]

You bunch of whiner should take a look at historical tax rates, lets say the Kennedy time period 1962, top marginal rate was 91%. However the government was paying down debt, as opposed to letting it spiral.

In 1962-1963 Social Welfare cost were 66 billion. 2016 it was more than a Trillion. There's your debt.

[n2ratfishin]

389 BILLION went to interest on the national debt last year, and that number is expected to skyrocket over the next ten years. It doesn't matter how much those of us working pay in. It's never enough.

[Stoner]

I still think we should have a flat tax. What would be More fair than everyone paying 20%???. No deductions, EIC, nothing. You make “x” amount you owe 20% of it. Everyone. Simple.

This isn’t complicated enough

[Racingfan]

The reason that the United States will eventually fail, Financially that is, is due to one thing and one thing only! Its called The Federal Reserve!
No one ever seems to understand that our tax dollars have virtually nothing to do with the nations debt! The government borrows any amount of money that it wants, any time it wants it. The Federal Reserve prints it and then gives it to the government to spend! Then we pay taxes for them to spend too!

Example. You need money to build a house. You borrow $100,000 from your friend Tom(the federal reserve) and agree to pay him 5% interest.
You build the house for $150,000 because you're now the government and can do this... So, you borrow money from your friend Tim (Jim Bob tax payer) to pay for the other $50,000.
Now, you need to start paying it back. So you borrow $1000.00 from your friend Steve (Another Joe tax payer). You give Tom and Tim $5.00 and you spend $990.00 on new furniture....
Meanwhile, you need more money............

[NitroZ7]

Let us not forget the billions and billions of dollars that go untaxed each year through offshore accounts. The Panama Papers story showed just how much money gets brought into countries tax free using these schemes. It was reported that the missed tax revenue could pay the healthcare costs of Americans each year. We still have alot of loopholes that could be closed to generate tax revenue without raising the taxes on working Americans.

[tcesni]

Nor should it, that money was already taxed once.

Only the additional income is taxed, the money used to purchase the asset is not taxed a second time.

[tcesni]

In 1962-1963 Social Welfare cost were 66 billion. 2016 it was more than a Trillion. There's your debt.

Much smaller country then and no Medicare. I think we are better off as a society by having a medical insurance system for people 65 and older, others might disagree and consider folks in this age category differently.

[richg99]

One thing a flat tax would do is uncover the many millions of dollars hidden by people who deal in cash.

Drug dealers; the corner store owner who doesn't ring up every purchase; the doctor who prescribes drugs and is paid in cash; the guy who cuts your lawn and gets paid in cash, or just cashes your check and never reports it. I have no idea how much is hidden, but I am the honest one who pays his taxes on everything.

[BoilermakerZ519]

One thing a flat tax would do is uncover the many millions of dollars hidden by people who deal in cash.

Drug dealers; the corner store owner who doesn't ring up every purchase; the doctor who prescribes drugs and is paid in cash; the guy who cuts your lawn and gets paid in cash, or just cashes your check and never reports it. I have no idea how much is hidden, but I am the honest one who pays his taxes on everything.

I am missing something...how does it uncover these transactions? These transactions are off the books for a reason...to evade the tax itself. So if we have a flat tax then these people will start to report each sale that they previously kept off the books?

[CatFan]

The way I understand it, corporate profits are either reinvested or paid out in dividends to shareholders. So if GE had 300 billion in profits, reinvested 150 billion and paid out the other 150 billion to its shareholders, there is no profit to tax. But the 150 billion paid out to shareholders gets taxed at the personal level. So yea there is plenty of taxes paid out on corporate profits, but its by the individuals who make it, not at the corporate level. The money that GE would recapitalize would also create a nice economic stimulus that would generate tax revenue at many levels. Corporations create a very large windfall of taxes

Yep. Corporate taxes should be eliminated. Companies are left with the option of spending the money to expand or improve the business or distribute it to the owners where it will be taxed. Businesses that operate in ways to minimize corporate tax liability hurt workers. They shouldn't have to.

[JER-1 BIG BASS]

I still think we should have a flat tax. What would be More fair than everyone paying 20%???. No deductions, EIC, nothing. You make “x” amount you owe 20% of it. Everyone. Simple.

i agree but I’d think a flat rate tax of 10% strait across the board every one every thing. But if you don’t have some kind of tax break for companies, they have no incentive to upgrade equipment, trucks , cars, just anything,.. so then you slow down a moving economy. Not good, would have to figure out an investment tax break for companies, but limited to certain amount of money, so they can’t get away with paying no tax

[richg99]

The flat tax would uncover cash transactions because, sooner or later, those people buy things with the hidden money.

[TRCM]

i agree but I’d think a flat rate tax of 10% strait across the board every one every thing. But if you don’t have some kind of tax break for companies, they have no incentive to upgrade equipment, trucks , cars, just anything,.. so then you slow down a moving economy. Not good, would have to figure out an investment tax break for companies, but limited to certain amount of money, so they can’t get away with paying no tax

A tax break doesn't get companies to invest like you say.....it just means the company pay less out so it has more profit.

It MAY choose to invest it so it can make more money, or it may choose to give it to the investors as profit.

Tax breaks just get companies to move to the area that gives them the break, so they have lower costs. Not sure I'd consider that an investment of any kind.

And to effect that, the tax break would have to be HUGE to offset the costs of moving all the equipment and putting up a new building (or modifying an existing one). The cost of moving would have to be less than just paying the tax to make it effective.....

The flat tax would uncover cash transactions because, sooner or later, those people buy things with the hidden money.

For that to work it'd have to be a flat tax on sales...not just a flat tax on income.

Unless you are suggesting tracking all expenses vs reported income for each person....which would be 10x more complicated & costly than the IRS is now.

[richg99]

You are correct. I mis-called it. A flat tax on SALES would be better known as a VAT Value Added Tax. That would uncover a lot of hidden cash. Thanks for catching my error.

[TRCM]

You are correct. I mis-called it. A flat tax on SALES would be better known as a VAT Value Added Tax. That would uncover a lot of hidden cash. Thanks for catching my error.

I agree, just do a nationwide sales tax, or value added tax as you called it......on everything.

No need for income tax then, and it would be 100% fair.


............but you'd still have people bitching cuz the rich can afford that 250k car, but they can't.....they think everyone should be able to have what they want to without the effort required to get it.....my answer...get off yer butt and work for it.

[bassdge]

A Federal sales tax would unfairly tax lower income earners more as a percentage of income earned to income spent, since they will spend a larger portion of income to survive.

I would like to see the old tax codes eliminated and start over with a simplified progressive tax code for individuals with no exemptions, no deductions, no tax credits. Simply income less amount saved in retirement plan (401k or IRA) taxed. They would have to make the progressive rates generate an equivalent or higher revenue stream than we have today. Employers would withhold the tax from paychecks. Have another progressive rate for investment interest, dividends, and capital gains. We could then eliminate most of the IRS and our complicated and costly tax filing system.
$0 to $50,000 = X %, the next $50,001 to $100,000 = Y%, the next $100,001 to $200,000 = Z % and so on

The second step would be same process for corporate tax.
the third step would be to reign in govt spending by using successful business people on advisory boards ( volunteer) to revamp the spending and approval process.
I live in Virginia and know a lot of people that do government contracting work. They all say the same thing....I can do less work or lower quality work for more money when working with the government vs private business.

[TRCM]

A Federal sales tax would unfairly tax lower income earners more as a percentage of income earned to income spent, since they will spend a larger portion of income to survive.

I would like to see the old tax codes eliminated and start over with a simplified progressive tax code for individuals with no exemptions, no deductions, no tax credits. Simply income less amount saved in retirement plan (401k or IRA) taxed. They would have to make the progressive rates generate an equivalent or higher revenue stream than we have today. Employers would withhold the tax from paychecks. Have another progressive rate for investment interest, dividends, and capital gains. We could then eliminate most of the IRS and our complicated and costly tax filing system.
$0 to $50,000 = X %, the next $50,001 to $100,000 = Y%, the next $100,001 to $200,000 = Z % and so on

The second step would be same process for corporate tax.
the third step would be to reign in govt spending by using successful business people on advisory boards ( volunteer) to revamp the spending and approval process.
I live in Virginia and know a lot of people that do government contracting work. They all say the same thing....I can do less work or lower quality work for more money when working with the government vs private business.

So you're proposing that a rich man should pay more for a gallon of milk or gas than a poor man ?

WHY ??

And don't say because he can afford it...punishing someone for their success is not very fair either.............


We already give the 'poor' & ' low income' their food for free in many many cases...it's called welfare...............and yes, I know it is scammed more than it is real



Also not sure you can get successful people to do the advisory board thing....as it would cut into their profits in all likelihood, especially here in VA

[wildturkey]

I wouldn’t be so mad if there wasn’t so much waste with my taxes. Always getting behind.

[grandbassslayer]

Only the additional income is taxed, the money used to purchase the asset is not taxed a second time.

Correct but the original money was taxed, then you take it and create something from it and you want to tax it more? Makes no sense.

[D.O.C. 989]

I remember 50 years ago people having this exact same conversation. Nothing has changed one bit and 50 years from now others will be having this same conversation and nothing will change.