I gotta say that lack of understanding around how the rich pay taxes is huge. As the post correctly states on the highest bracket of income one is taxed 48%. That is huge. For every dollar earned you only get 0.52cents.

The numbers you are pointing to is the cumulative tax level of rich people which includes capital gains. For example if a rich person invests their money and earns the same $1 they are only taxed at 10%. So what occurs is the very wealthy end up paying a blended tax rate which is very much lower than what some pays on income as a disproportionate amount of their income comes in through investments. Unrealized investment earnings are not taxed until they are fully realized, so $1 earned but not realized is taxed at 0%, so again this blends the overall tax rate lower. There are loop holes too where Hedge funds/Privage equity guys using exemptions plus low capital gains taxes to pay very very low levels of taxes on the huge money they earn.

So what has happened is that income earned is not all treated the same. There is a big misunderstanding between the 1% in terms of wages earned who pay ~48% and the 1% in terms of assets who in theory only pay 10% as a lot of their income is in investments (main reason why Romney’s rate was so low).

So to be in the top 1% in earnings in the US you have to make ~344k, a lot of money but to be in the top 1% in assets you need to have net worth of $9mil. So the 1% wage earner taking home 170k after tax would have to work and exclusively save for 52 years in order to get to top bracket in Net Assets. Lets also look at the respective tax returns. We know 1% wage earner pays 48% so he pays 165k on 344k of earnings, lets assume top Net Worth guy earns 5% a year (conservative given low level of rates) his earnings are 450k and his tax bill would be 45k.

THAT IS THE INEQUALITY! So please stop lumping in people paying 48% with the dude sitting on huge amount of assets paying nothing.

The capital gains tax rate being so low is what disproportionately benefits the rich vs the poor. It also should be lower than income taxes since the country should encourage investments over consumption but the current gap is too high.

Please keep this in mind when discussing this topic. I find the misplaced rhetoric very unfair to people that pay huge sums of taxes without complaining with very very very rich people that don’t.

Or do you really think that GE, INTERNALLY, does not know how much tax they paid on a country by country basis?

Jesus.

So: GE says it does not publicly disclose what it pays in taxes on a country-by-country basis … oh, but by the way, it paid $1 billion in taxes in the U.S. in 2010.

Commenter legend.

“We do not break out tax data on a country by country basis” — after earlier asserting GE paid $1 billion in U.S. taxes in 2010.

Doublespeak.

Here’s the deal — you don’t know what you’re talking about.

“We do not break out data” = we do not disclose it PUBLICLY.

Or do you really think that GE, INTERNALLY, does not know how much tax they paid on a country by country basis?

Jesus.

We’re going to empty out all the good provinces and transport you to Quebec

/ Claims dibs on Nova Scotia
// Ancestral homeland’d

We’re going to empty out all the good provinces and transport you to Quebec

No please don’t take Manitoba!

/Me and Montreal are cool

“We do not break out tax data on a country by country basis” — after earlier asserting GE paid $1 billion in U.S. taxes in 2010.

Doublespeak.

I want to do a musical based on your life, in the vein of Rent, only with interesting music and less douchey characters.

Could not find the clip of Homer Simpson in rent so I settled for this.

You have a point. I should have specified income tax.

No.

From the linked article:

GE chief spokesman Gary Sheffer told Pro Publica: “We expect to have a small U.S. income tax liability for 2010.” How much? The company wouldn’t say.

According to [GE spokesman Andrew] Williams, GE paid $1 billion in federal, state and local taxes in the U.S. for 2010. He declined to say how much of that was for federal income taxes, except to say that some of it was.

we go after greece, fuckers’ll practically be paying us to stick around.

Bra-fucking-vo.

We’re going to empty out all the good provinces and transport you to Quebec.

trail le tears.

We’re going to empty out all the good provinces and transport you to Quebec.

According to Williams, GE paid $1 billion in federal, state and local taxes in the U.S. for 2010. He declined to say how much of that was for federal income taxes, except to say that some of it was.

But that’s just me.

I vote Canada.

So I guess we should just light Alberta on fire then? Not trying to be a dick Alberta but we cannot let them get the oil.

I go boozing and tip the bartender, the bartender uses that money to buy drugs, drug dealer buys his junkie girlfriend a bracelet, junkie fences the bracelet to a pawn shop, pawn shop sells to a indie store owner who uses me to build a website for them and it starts all over again

I want to do a musical based on your life, in the vein of Rent, only with interesting music and less douchey characters.

You have a point. I should have specified income tax.

No.

Pro Publica/Fortune, April 4, 2011: Did GE pay U.S. income taxes in 2010? Yes, it paid estimated taxes for 2010, and also made payments for previous years. Think of it as your having paid withholding taxes on your salary in 2010, and sending the IRS a check on April 15, 2010, covering your balance owed for 2009.

I vote Canada.

they’re poor in spirit…im voting for greece.

If only raising taxes created more jobs — seriously, think about it — this might be relevant.

No one has ever asserted that but by fuck have the asserted fallaciously that lower taxes equal more jobs.