How much taxes is enough taxes

I'm getting my taxes ready for 10/15 which I extended from 4/15. I am paying a boat load of taxes this year. And I'm thinking for the amount I'm paying I'm not getting very much. So I'm wondering what does it mean to know you are paying just the right amount of taxes. I'm sure many people will say they want to pay zero taxes. The problem is once you pay zero my fear is there is a lot the government does we will not miss until it's gone.

I think taxes shouldn't be too high so all the money goes to military spending and dropping bombs in the Middle East. Taxes should be low enough that most people can afford to redo their kitchens or bathrooms or some other major repair every couple of years. The way it is now the majority of people do not have enough meaningful disposable income in my opinion.

How do you know you are paying too little, too much, or just the right amount of taxes? How do you know what is right?

a reply to: dfnj2015

If the government can afford to waste billions on frivolous things, you know you're paying too much in tax.

a reply to: dfnj2015

If the government spends more to bomb people than feed people.

a reply to: dfnj2015


The government already collects more taxes than any other country in the world so they get plenty of money.
We don't have an income problem, we have a spending problem.

a reply to: dfnj2015

Let's be honest.. Income taxes are for the middle class, we are the tax mules.

Those who are "really" rich pay 15% capital gains only.

Those who are poor pay nothing... actually get free money through tax credits.


If you want a fair tax, get rid of the income tax and simply have a non-exempt federal consumption tax. The more you buy, the more you pay.

a reply to: dfnj2015

The taxes cover the budget, the budget should be controlled by the elective and representative process.

Obviously something went wrong in that scenario.

Personally I am flat tax ubi proponent. I recognising the problems with that system but ultimately the simplicity makes transparency. Something I believe is purposely avoided to hide money.

I'm in one of the top 5 taxed states. The city wants to fund something. I forgot what. They are trying to ram through a new tax that charges residents of the county just for driving in the county.

This may be what is known as a wheel tax. I don't know. If it isn't that, it's something similar.

I'd like to know how it is a city can tax the entire county.

People wonder why there's so much hate and violence. You can only turn the screws so far before people explode.

a reply to: infolurker

I agree but I think a ubi flat tax system is even easier. It gets rid of massive waste problem in administrative process and compliance factors for individuals and business. Social services and the irs would have drastic cuts. Possibly 2 trillion if you factor the cost of compliance with accounting.

Government needs to spend like a family on a budget instead of like someone who keeps getting anouther credit card they can max out.

That's the problem people living within a budget are more fiscally responsible then the government.

Wish we had more say on what taxes went to and how much.

Any way I heard the IRS was created around the same time period as the federal reserve and federal income tax is nothing more then paying back the interest owed by the government borrowing money from the federal reserve bank so that's a whole other rabbit hole.

a reply to: dfnj2015


If you have to ask then you are probably paying to much. Those people in DC be crazy spending.

I personally live on disability welfare, and I'm thankful for every penny - I'm totally unfit for work due to a neurological condition. However, if I were working (I did once work very hard, 60 hour weeks were regular, a few 96 hour weeks in there too) - I would see anything above 40% as being unreasonable, and 50% would be goddamn insulting.

I'm all for taxing the rich & helping those who cannot help themselves; however, if work is to 'pay', then why in God's name would it be considered fair to give up half of my earnings to a government which may or may not have had a significant effect in assisting the growth of my business? There's always an argument about the poor needing employment which 'pays', but if the government is taxing the employers at 50% then where is the motivation to offer higher salaries to your entry level staff? It sets a negative precedent in my humble opinion.

Lower paid workers should be taxed 25% with middle rate earners paying perhaps 35% then the highest earners paying no more than 45%, probably 42.5% would be ideal. I think if that were the case, it would be seen that work pays, and everyone pays what they can afford. If taxes are up at 50%, then high earners are motivated to engage in financial shenanigans, hiding wealth & investing in cynical, non-community friendly ways. If the highest personal tax rate was 42.5%, then those high earners would feel more secure, and thus would be more likely to have money to invest in new business, and more likely to pay a fair wage to their employees. If the mindset at the top is cynical due to unfair levels of taxation, then that will filter down to zero-hours contracts & wages which literally aren't sufficient to live in anything more than a garden shed.

The mindset needs to change. Until the governments realise that work must pay for the highest earners in addition to the lowest earners, then cynicism will infect & distort the entrepreneurial spirit of a nation, and cost-cutting measures, lack of willingness to be generous, and often severely, grossly unfair manipulations of insurance & pension funds, for example, will be that which arises from the festering pile of resentment. If those at the top are scrambling to save a fair proportion of the monies arising from their labour, then they are conditioned to treat everyone as undeserving, especially those most distant from them economically. They will see them as nothing more than a means to an end, that end being greed derived from fear & insecurity.

a reply to: dfnj2015

Just like any other cost / benefit calculation, the actual amount paid is less important than the value received. Similar to some folks pay $80,000 for a car and consider it a good value; others look at that with horror and get a $5,000 car.

So if we had actual good education in this country, good libraries, good roads, an actual good economy, a military adequate to defend us but not engage in absurd military adventurism, adequate funding for research into alternate energy sources, a decent actual health care system, etc etc then most folks would probably think the taxes they paid were fine, whatever the exact amount might be.

Sadly, we don't have any of those things, so many if not most think their taxes are too high, i.e. they are not getting adequate value for the money invested.

From the Center on Budget and Policy (only Federal):

www.cbpp.org...

How much is fair in Taxes ???


My answer is '''what's good for the goose is good for the gander"... in this quip I cite the Bible source ->

the church is on record of 'tithing' (another word for forced giving) 10% of ones' weekly income

so should everyone's tax rate be only 10%... any rate more is putting an undue heavy burden on the wage income earner

originally posted by: FyreByrd
From the Center on Budget and Policy (only Federal):

www.cbpp.org...

I'm sorry, I want to have a productive conversation. But as soon as Social Security is the very first thing when talking about federal spending is just wrong. Social Security is it's own thing.

Don't think about taxes in terms of how much money you pay and instead look at the percentage as how much time each week you spend working *before* any of that money can find its way home to benefit you and yours.

The more you earn, the longer you have to work during each week before you can bring any of your pay home to your family.

It's like the more successful you are, the more the government thinks they deserve to take from your hard work.

Now that's when it really starts to get insulting.

Income earned through labor should not be taxed at all. Income earned by taking a portion of the workers labor as profit should be taxed fairly high as should all other unearned income. The excess of money accumulated upon death should be taxed very highly.

originally posted by: Tarzan the apeman.
a reply to: dfnj2015


If you have to ask then you are probably paying to much. Those people in DC be crazy spending.

I agree, military spending is completely out of control. We need to close foreign military bases not open more! We are now up to 800+ foreign military bases draining the treasury dry.

originally posted by: sligtlyskeptical
Income earned through labor should not be taxed at all. Income earned by taking a portion of the workers labor as profit should be taxed fairly high as should all other unearned income. The excess of money accumulated upon death should be taxed very highly.

Many economists believe the value of money comes from debt not labor.

originally posted by: dfnj2015
So I'm wondering what does it mean to know you are paying just the right amount of taxes. I'm sure many people will say they want to pay zero taxes. ...
How do you know you are paying too little, too much, or just the right amount of taxes? How do you know what is right?

The right amount is 10% of your income.

This is scripturally prescribed.

Most of what you have in your life comes from God. Some things come through other people in your society, but no more than 10% of your life can be attributed to benefits from the rest of society. All the other 90% comes directly from the creator himself.