RTF Income Distribution Poll GDG....

[Captain Mike D]

I have wondered the same thing. Based on the opinions posted here concerning taxes I have concluded that the majority of the folks here are making in excess of $250,000.

Maybe not, maybe SOME folks DEPEND on folks that earn over that threshhold for their livelyhoods!!

No smiley faces from here,
Mike

[tshuntin]

I just want to know if any of the $251K and overs are looking for a new hunting buddy!!! I am great company, don't complain, and will go hunting anywhere you will take me.

[JDogger]

Dear Fellow Business Owners:

As a Business owner who employs 70 people, I have resigned myself to the
fact that Barack Obama will be our next President, and that my Taxes and
Fees will go up in a BIG way.

To compensate for these increases, I figure that the Customer will have to
see an increase in my fees to them of about 8%. I will also have to lay off 6
of my employees. This really bothered me as I believe we are family here
and didnʼt know how to choose who will have to go. So, this is what I did.
I strolled thru the parking lot and found 8 Obama bumper stickers on my
employees cars. I have decided these folks will be the first to be laid off.


I can't think of another more fair way to approach this problem. If you have a better idea, let me know. I am sending this letter to all Business owners that I know'

The bumper sticker School of Business Management... Inspired... truly...Good luck on your next round of employment recruiting... I hope those that you employ give you exactly what you expect... you deserve no less.
If, as you and your ilk imply, that ecomonic hardship is just around the corner, business's such as your's, that rely on discretionary
spending, will be the first to fail.

Through the lens regards,

JD

[Uncle Bill]

Geez, I voted and now I see there are 12 making over a quarter mill. Wonder who the other 11 are?


UB

[Hoosier]

I thought under 200K was lower middle class, but now I think I might be wrong.

[SMITTYSSGTUSMC]

I have wondered the same thing. Based on the opinions posted here concerning taxes I have concluded that the majority of the folks here are making in excess of $250,000. Who would have thought that selling dog training videos was that lucrative?

Jim,
I have posted on numerous ocations something to the point that while I do not make more than $250 k I do own four(4) homes and write them off on my taxes a the end of the year. One of the houses my mother lives in, while yet another is a rental property, then there is the house that me and my family live in currently, as well as the mobile home we bought to go to and from hunt test as we saw it as a cheaper way to pay for the dog games I have became addicted to so vary fast. Now with that said the average tax rebate check after the interest is deducted comes to around $10,000 a year. For a Marine or I’m sure any one under the 250K thresh hold that is a lot of money, that is money that will no longer be in my pocket because Obama wants to get rid of the multi-home tax credit, so Again why should we punish those who work hard save everything invest into property and then take it away because not everybody can, or will do it. Since when should it be a bad thing to get a Piece of the preverbal American pie or (4) in my case.

Smitty

[luvmylabs23139]

I'm not near the $250K but most years I do have capital gains. Obama has already said he will RAISE the capital gains tax, so my taxes would go up under his plan. I pulled money out of the market before the bottom fell out, and there is no way I'm buying back in if he gets elected. His capital gains tax proposal is keeping capital out of the markets.
He truly doesn't get it.

[Hew]

I have wondered the same thing. Based on the opinions posted here concerning taxes I have concluded that the majority of the folks here are making in excess of $250,000. Who would have thought that selling dog training videos was that lucrative?

I don't have to be a robbery victim to know that robbery is morally wrong. Likewise, it is not requisite to make over $250k in order for most to recognize the moral repugnance of a majority voting to reach into the wallets of thge minority and take their money.

[Granddaddy]

Here's the thing most don't look at when it comes to 250K in income. Small business owners generally organize their companies as LLCs or sub-chapter S corps (to avoid double taxing on income). Under IRS rules for such organizations, the companies do not pay income taxes (they do pay 50%+ of the payroll taxes, employees pay the balance of SS taxes & medicare directly). Any income derived from LLCs & S-corps flow directly to the owners who must report that income personally even if the money stays in the company. Therefore any increase in taxes on those companies making over 250K will have a direct affect in the owner's ability to increase employment, increase pay & benefits to existing employees or make additional investment in the company to grow the business.

This is why our nation's economy cannot be grown from the "bottom up" as Obama would like the electorate to think. Small businesses provide over 50% of all employment in the US. Increase the tax burden on small businesses and jobs will decrease, small business grow will slow. It's not rocket science but politicians will do most anything but tell you the plain truth.

[Jim Pickering]

I don't have to be a robbery victim to know that robbery is morally wrong. Likewise, it is not requisite to make over $250k in order for most to recognize the moral repugnance of a majority voting to reach into the wallets of thge minority and take their money.

So you are either in the $250,000+ group? If not, you have my respect for sticking with your principles and being willing to put your money where your mouth is.

Taxes have always been a process of redistributing wealth and every income group thinks they are the ones paying more than their fair share.

A little history on Income Taxes for those who think any thing except lowering them will destroy this country.
http://www.ustreas.gov/education/fac...es/ustax.shtml

Congress passed the Revenue Act of 1861 to finance the Civil War and that Act included provisions for the first personal income tax. The income tax was levied at 3 percent on all incomes higher than $800 a year.

However, it was 1913 when the XVI Amendment to the Constitution was ratified authorizing the federal government to impose an income tax.

Amendment XVI
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several states, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

Congress passed a new income tax law with rates beginning at 1% and rising to 7% for taxpayers with income in excess of $500,000. Less than 1 percent of the population paid income tax at the time.

Needing still more tax revenue to finance WWI, Congress passed the War Revenue Act of 1917 which lowered exemptions and greatly increased tax rates. In 1917 a taxpayer with only $40,000 faced a 16 percent rate and the individual with $1.5 million faced a tax rate of 67 percent.

Another revenue act was passed in 1918, which hiked tax rates once again, this time raising the top rate to 77 percent.

The economy boomed during the 1920s in spite of the high tax rates resulting in increase revenues from income taxes. Congress cut tax rates five times, ultimately returning the bottom tax rate to 1 percent and the top rate down to 25 percent. The result was to stimulate a mania in financial assets resulting in the stock market crash of 1929 and economic depression of the early 1930s.

To keep the government solvent Congress was forced to pass the Tax Act of 1932 which dramatically increased tax rates once again. By 1936 the lowest tax rate had reached 4 percent and the top rate was up to 79 percent. While most do not like what was done with the tax revenues the government was eventually able to spend the economy out of the depression.

By the end of the WWII the nature of the income tax had been fundamentally altered. Reductions in exemption levels meant that taxpayers with taxable incomes of only $500 faced a bottom tax rate of 23 percent, while taxpayers with incomes over $1 million faced a top rate of 94 percent.

That is, when this country chose to fight a war, the citizens at the time paid for the war. They did not defer that cost to their children and grandchildren. Note that our economy and our country faired fairly well for the next 40 years.

Fast forward to the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, the Reagan tax cuts, which enjoyed strong bi-partisan support in the Congress and represented a fundamental shift in the course of federal income tax policy. it featured a 25 percent reduction in individual tax brackets, phased in over 3 years, and indexed for inflation thereafter. This brought the top tax bracket down to 50 percent. However, as a result the Reagan administration incurred massive budget deficits to the tune of doubling the National Debt from the cumulative amount incurred by the first 39 presidents of $1.8 Trillion to $4 Trillion.

The Reagan administration continued to push for still lower taxes which resulted in the Tax Reform Act of 1986, which brought the top statutory tax rate down from 50 percent to 28 percent while the corporate tax rate was reduced from 50 percent to 35 percent. The number of tax brackets was reduced and the personal exemption and standard deduction amounts were increased and indexed for inflation, thereby relieving millions of taxpayers of any Federal income tax burden. However, the Act also created new personal and corporate Alternative Minimum Taxes.

HW Bush, after the “Read my lips. No new taxes.” statement during the campaign, tried to get back to the republican platform of being fiscally conservative and was voted out of office. However, even with the additional tax revenue his administration managed to ad another $2Trillion to the national debt in just four years.

Enter George Bush and his Economic Growth and Tax Relief and Reconciliation Act of 2001. Though the rate reductions were phased in over several years, ultimately the top tax rate was to drop from 39.6 percent to 33 percent. Note that is top rate, not the lowest rate or the middle rates. Mr. Bush was able to con the citizens of this country in to prosecuting a war to satisfy his personal agenda and at the same time con you into believing that cutting taxes for the top 5% of tax payers was somehow beneficial to all citizens. The result is that the Bush administration has redoubled the national debt which now stands at $10.8Trillion. That is bought your vote with money borrowed from your children and grandchildren.

And you folks really want John McCain who has promised to continue George Bush’s war and tax cuts. I do not know what the number is. Maybe it was, in fact, $10.8Trillion. Maybe it will be $15Trillion or $20Trillion, but I do know that as some number this country will be crushed under the weight of it debt.