Here's one reason why the US economy is unlikely to recover: millionaire aren't paying their share of taxes, they're leaving it to everyone else.
Kristina Peterson at The Wall Street Journal reports that millionaires made up just over 0.1% of the more than 140 million tax returns filed in the United States 2009. That means one out of every thousand tax returns came from the well-heeled. Just 8274 returns were filed by those with income of $10 million or more.
"More than 97% of tax returns filed in 2009 reported an income of $200,000 or less,'' Peterson writes. "And the biggest chunk of returns – about 13% – were from those making between $50,000 and $75,000. Their average tax bill was $4,740."
And data from the Internal Revenue Service reveals that millionaires are now paying less tax because of all the tax cuts issued in by George W Bush. As a percentage of their incomes, millionaires are now paying about one-quarter less of their income to federal taxes than they did in the mid-1990s. The data shows they paid an average tax rate of 22.4 percent in 2009. That's down by a quarter since 1995, when they paid an average of 30.4 percent.
And meanwhile, the deal with the Tea Party Republicans this week will raise no additional revenues while cutting more than $2.4 trillion from public investments, defense, and government services that all Americans rely upon.
And that's why the US economy is screwed. It will stay that way until they fix the tax system.
no comment untill now