How much tax do the rich pay?

Answer 1

That is the age old question. The problem with the question, before you even get near an answer, is whose definition of 'the rich' shall we use to answer. I have a friend whose household income is six and a half times mine. Their annual taxes are about my annual income. They consider themselves working class. If you called them rich, it would make them laugh. In today's economy, if your income is one or two million per year, you need to have a tax accountant working hard to keep less than half go to taxes, then you have to pay the Accountants. At this level, unless you want to pay half of your income to the government, you need to have complicated investments and places to legally secure your money so that doesn't happen. If you call these people rich, they may not laugh but they don't feel as 'rich' as you might think. they usually think of 'rich' as the people who count their money in billions. Now, when we get to a billion in income, no one can dispute the label 'the rich'. What they pay in taxes is even more complicated to find. They work twice as hard to keep money from going to taxes than the millionaires and a staff of people to help them do it.

I personally count the money I pay H&R Block to prepare my taxes as the cost of taxes and I'm sure that billionaires include the cost of that staff the cost of taxes also. Income tax is not the only tax we pay. We all pay the same taxes in sales tax, If I buy a thirty dollar blanket, I pay the same level of tax on it as the person who buys a hundred and thirty thousand dollar car. The property we own is assessed an amount of taxes each year. I personally don't own property but the people I know do. They all pay those taxes that I don't have to pay because I could never afford to buy property; the more property you own and the more valuable the property, the more property taxes you pay. Then we come to the money that 'the rich' don't pay directly to the government, but some of it gets there anyway. How many millionaires or billionaires do you know that clean their own houses, change their own oil, or mow their own lawns; not too many. They hire a staff to do that. They pay staff and services (provide jobs) who in turn pay taxes on the money they earn from their employment.

'Tax the rich' is a political term that's been around since the horse and buggy. Many people use the term as if they were pointing to a specific group of people standing in line at the tax office. People who really are rich by anyone's standards will always find ways to shelter and secure their money before taxes are assessed. If your minimum wage check had deductions for half or more in taxes before you were paid, you would see why they are compelled to do this. There was a time in a place called the Soviet Union when everyone was paid a similar wage (theoretically) even though the government owned everything and everyone worked for the government; surprisingly enough, even they paid taxes to the government.

How much tax do the rich pay: even they couldn't tell you.

You are so right because today I had a project due tomorrow and they said the same thing.