U.S. billionaires paid a lower tax rate than the working class last year

Absolute horseshit that is. Makem pay more.

 

But the tax cuts will pay for themselves in increased GDP and employment
But the benefits will trickle down
But billionaires should pay lower rates because they're more productive members of society
/sarcasm

 

Sounds like theft to me. You far-left socialist scum.

Why should hard workers be penalized, just so lazy poor people like you can have silly things for free? Like food security, healthcare and education? The real job creators are supposed to pass on getting their stepson a 20th solid gold yacht so you poor ****s can have horseshit like that?

My blood is boiling. Why do you hate the rich? Why do you hate the American dream? Did you not enjoy your tax cuts?

Can't wait til Trump gets re-elected and lowers our taxes again, socialist like you can thank me later come tax season 2021!

 

drain the swamp

The Most Powerful Lobbyist in Trump’s Washington

Ballard is closer to the president than perhaps any other lobbyist in town. He’s parlayed that relationship into a booming business helping clients get their way with the Trump administration — and his clients and even some of his rivals say his firm has a better grasp of what’s going on in the West Wing than almost anyone else on K Street. Ballard was one of the top fundraisers in the country for Trump’s campaign and continues to raise millions for his reelection campaign. Wiles, one of his top lieutenants, ran Trump’s campaign in Florida and delivered the nation’s biggest swing state to the president.

Ballard's relationship with Trump has helped him solve a lucrative puzzle that has frustrated more established players. For all of the president’s “drain the swamp” rhetoric, the new administration has given corporate America and its lobbyists the opportunity to revive dreams of tax cuts, regulatory rollbacks and rule changes that were mothballed during the Obama administration.

Ballard appears to have landed the biggest fish. He has signed more than 60 clients since setting up shop in Washington after Trump’s inauguration, including blue-chip companies like American Airlines and Sprint. Those clients paid Ballard nearly $10 million last year for help navigating Trump's first year in office. (Those numbers don't include the $3.1 million the firm says it brought in representing foreign clients such as Turkey and the Dominican Republic.)

 

It's about time! Well done Mr. President!

 

This is one of the reasons I've come around on the issue of the flat tax. Our massive and complicated tax code allows those with the resources to exploit it to benefit the most from it while those who can't hire CPA's and tax attorneys don't get the full benefit. Further there is a lot of money and time going to to accountants and tax attorneys that could be put to more productive uses.

 

The actual article calls into question the methodology used for the study. Looks like this particular study started with a point of view which drove some data choices.

 

from the article:

The analysis differs from many other published estimates of tax burdens by encompassing the totality of taxes Americans pay: not just federal income taxes but also corporate taxes, as well as taxes paid at the state and local levels. It also includes the burden of about $250 billion of what Saez and Zucman call “indirect taxes,” such as licenses for motor vehicles and businesses.


Not all economists accept Saez and Zucman’s analysis. It is based in part on their previous work, along with French economist Thomas Piketty, on the distribution of wealth and income in American society. Other economists have generated estimates of that distribution that show smaller disparities between the nation’s haves and have-nots. Saez, Zucman and Piketty have defended their research and maintain that their methods are the most accurate.

On the question of tax burden, Jason Furman, an economics professor at Harvard University who chaired the White House Council of Economic Advisers under President Barack Obama, noted that Saez and Zucman did not include refundable tax credits, such as the earned-income tax credit (EITC), in their analysis.

The credit, which is intended to encourage low-income families to work, “is part of the tax code,” Furman said. A person who paid $1,000 in federal income taxes and then received a $1,500 credit would have a total federal tax burden of -$500, but Furman said that under Saez and Zucman’s analysis, that person would instead show a burden of $0. That result would make total tax burdens at the lower end of the income spectrum appear higher than they are.

“The best estimates indicate that the tax system is progressive — with the rich paying a higher tax rate than everyone else,” Furman said.

Zucman countered that his and Saez’s analysis considers the EITC and other credits like it as transfers of income, akin to food stamps or jobless benefits, rather than tax provisions.

“If you start counting some transfers as negative taxes, it is not clear where to stop,” he said via email. “Do you treat the EITC as a negative tax? veterans’ benefits? medicaid? defense spending? … There’s no clear line and the results become arbitrary.”

There is general agreement among economists, however, that the tax burden of the rich has fallen considerably in recent decades.

“The rich definitely pay less in taxes than they did in the past and less than they should,” Furman said.

 

While this is sad the cut in corporate tax rates is what is driving the massive deficits Trump is running up

 

This is terrible for normal people, but the problem will never be solved any time soon.

 

Yo guys growing up in China I have learned in school that this is inevitable in a capitalism country.

 

Is the Beast starved enough?

Nah, **** you, pay me.