If US tax brackets were changed to the following, how would it effect the economy?
Single/Married filling Separately
10% $1-21,150
15% $21,151-82,250
33% $82,251-272,250
35% above $272,251
Married filling Jointly/Qualifying Widow(er)
10% $1-42,300
15% $42,301-137,050
33% $137,051-240,900
35% above 240,901
Head of Household
10% $1-28,725
15% $28,726-117,450
33% $117.451-281,575
35% above $281,576
So, you significantly lower taxes on the lower to middle class, significantly raise taxes on the upper middle class, a small increase in taxes for the wealthy, and keep tax rates exactly the same on the very wealthy. I’m not sure what the impact on the economy would be, but I’m not quite sure I understand the logic.
what I did: Bottom of bracket “A” to middle of “B”, Middle of “B” to top of “C”, Bottom of “D” to middle of “E”, middle of “E” up.
Yes, but why does that make any sense? What is the logic of making a family who earns $180,000 pay a good bit more in taxes, but someone making $10,000,000 pay pretty much the same amount?
(Yes, I know I’m disregarding the effect of eliminating the middle tax bracket, but more or less I’m too lazy to do the math.)
Good Question! The system (like the RL brackets) has flaws.
You came up with the OP, and you can’t even share a few words on why it makes sense? This isn’t much of a debate.
As to the question, my very rough math says that revenues would probably increase a bit, not a lot. My guess is that it would not have a large impact on the economy, but to the extent that it did, it would lean towards prolonging the recession.
Thought it’d get moved from MPSIMS, so I’ll ask it get moved there.
I’ll not be surprised to see this thread come whipping back to GD, but I am moving it to MPSIMS at the request of the OP to see how he or she wants to play it.
These are based on 2009 rates, not 2010, but that doesn’t make much difference. However, your 240,900 should be 290,900 as shown above.
No, sorry, doesn’t belong in MPSIMS – let’s see how it does in IMHO, but they may throw it back into GD.
Wow, I’m rich. Who knew? Certainly not me.
This is the same government that, after filling out the FAFSA, deemed that we should be able to contribute $150,000 towards our oldest daughter’s college expenses. Since we have two children, that would be $300,000 they expected us to dole out to educate our kids. That’s more than our house is worth. I suppose they figured that we should drain our savings and retirement accounts – the money that we COULD have been using to live the high life the last 20 odd years – and, I don’t know, be a burden on the government when we’re old.
I just love this country with its “Fuck you if you work hard and make money!” mentality.
If the US tax brackets changed, we’d be paying even more in taxes and have less to support ourselves and our kids. At the end of the day, my fixed expenses are just that; I can’t change them. The only thing we could cut would be our 401k contributions and money we contribute towards our kids’ college expenses. In the long run, we’d be screwing the next generation because they’d have to support us in our old age once we ran out of money.
Over the long haul, all changing tax brackets does is raise/lower the number of people at certain wages so that the actual take-home amount is the same for anyone doing the same job before and after.
You really hate successful people, don’t you?
Actually even a flat tax is unfair. The $100,000 earner pays $10,000 with a 10% flat tax, but the $10 million earner has to pay a million for the same government! Is that fair? Frankly the very rich should pay less than the middle class. We don’t use your highways (we fly our private jets), we don’t use your decaying public schools, and we certainly don’t need your National Parks (we jet to the Mediterranean or Caribbean for our holidays). It’s pretty obvious that it’s counter-productive to impose any tax on our most productive citizens, but America is just overwhelmed now with a Hate-the-Rich Marxist philosophy.
But those of us who love America are doing our best. We’re trying to keep the economy crippled until voters come to their senses and vote the Marxists out.
Yeah, FAFSA’s are stupid in that regard!
I’m not sure it’s the government’s fault that you sent your daughter to a college that costs $150,000+. You could send three kids to most state universities for that much.
[QUOTE=Really Not All That Bright;12907522I’m not sure it’s the government’s fault that you sent your daughter to a college that costs $150,000+. You could send three kids to most state universities for that much.[/QUOTE]
We’re not. That’s just what they listed as the amount we should be able to contribute towards their higher education.
That’s not really what FAFSA means. The government does not expect you to dole out $300k, just that if you choose to do so it is not going to subsidize you.
In addition, the FASFA amount is divided by the number of kids you have in college when you apply. If it’s $150K for one child, it’s also $150K for both.
I understand that. I just think the whole FAFSA system is skewed to, once again, reward those who live beyond their means at the expense of those who live within their means and save. We’re not eligible for any subsidies because we made the right choices. We worked to get degrees so we could get good jobs, we saved towards retirement, we bought used cars, we bought a much smaller house than we were approved for…all these things that experts tell us to do. And now we’re being penalized for that because we’re too well off to qualify for any subsidies.
A good percentage of our income is already stripped to subdize OTHER kids’ education (among other things) while we struggle to pay the tuition all on our own. And now they want to tax us even more? Yippee! I guess I’ll drive my 7 year old minivan another 5 years because I’m so freaking rich.
Forget the subsidy. I’d be happy with a tax credit for the fact that I’m doling out 25% of our take home pay to educate my two kids this year. You know, so that they can become productive citizens and pay their fair share of taxes.
Argh!
I only have one child in college.