The upper class get government handouts just like the poor

Well isn't this just a kick in the nuts. The working class needs to open their eyes and realize who their true masters are. Lavish lifestyles of the rich and famous who piss into toilets made of gold.

The poor know they're slaves and cant be persuaded, keeping them alive is the humanitarian thing to do. The rich are quite aware of this and understand that not all sheep can be herded.

As the programming increases, you have your slave who thinks they're free which represents the large gap between the rich and poor. These are the backs that make up the foundation for the rich to walk upon.

The rich do not sweat the small stuff and can afford to bypass most insurances and debt traps. They operate unseemly within the confines of a system we all believe to work for us, when the majority of us are working for it.

Source

1. The mortgage interest deduction for big houses and second homes

Thanks to this tax break, the 5 million households in America making more than $200,000 a year get a lot more housing aid than the 20 million households living on less than $20,000. Deductions for mortgage interest incentivize people already capable of buying big homes to buy even bigger ones. This tax break applies as well to second homes (you only get one second home though!). Note: In the eyes of the Congressional Budget Office — the official word on this in Washington — the mortgage interest deduction is equivalent to the government offering you money, not you keeping your own money.

2. The yacht tax deduction

If you’ve got a boat and you’re paying interest on it, that interest is tax-deductible – provided your boat is really, really big. If it has sleeping quarters, a kitchen and a toilet – e.g., it is a yacht – then it can be considered a second home and any interest you pay on it is deductible. But if you just have a garden-variety fishing boat or canoe, sorry – no deduction for you. Beyond that, if you have a yacht you can loan it out to a charter business for part of the year, and keep it for personal use the rest of the time. This allows you to deduct the purchase price, insurance, maintenance and slip fees too.

3. Rental property

If you're a landlord, which you probably aren't if you're very low-income, you can deduct many of the expenses you incur renting a home, including repairs, advertising, HOA fees and — again — mortgage interest. If you happen to rent out either your first or second home for 14 days or less — because, for example, Augusta National Golf Club is hosting the Masters nearby — you get to just pocket all that income without paying taxes on it at all.

4. Fancy business meals

Talking business over an expensive dinner? That's tax deductible, too, a fact that puts taxpayer spending on food stamps into relief. This is a good deal for, say, a CEO presiding over actual filet mignon at a five-star restaurant. Imagine that the tab for dinner and drinks for 10 executives comes to $1,600. Current tax law allows companies to deduct half of the cost of business meals — in this case, $800. With a corporate tax rate of 35 percent, each dollar of deductions yields 35 cents of tax savings — so that $800 deduction saves $280 in taxes. This means one dinner for 10 people provides more public food assistance than the $279 an average household receives in food stamps for the whole month.

5. The capital gains tax rate

This is the big one. Taxes on investment dividends and capital gains currently max out at about 24 percent when you add in a Medicare surtax that applies to some investment income. But the top income tax rate is 39.6 percent. So investment income is taxed at a much lower rate than regular income. The annual earnings of many of the ultra-rich come from investments, not from wages. This is why Warren Buffett famously has a lower effective tax rate than his secretary.

6. The estate tax

“The Estate Tax is a tax on your right to transfer property at your death,” according to the IRS. Without the estate tax, super-wealthy families would be able to hoard that wealth in perpetuity, becoming ever more powerful in the process. The tax, as it currently exists, only kicks in on estates worth $5.4 million dollars or more, affecting about the top 0.2 percent of households. For everyone else in the top 1 percent, congratulations! You can pass on your riches to your heirs tax-free.

7. Gambling loss deductions

Did you know that the government provides a generous tax deduction for literally throwing your money away? You can deduct your gambling losses up to the value of any winnings you earned. More gambling winnings mean more gambling deductions, incentivizing you to keep gambling more to at least break even. And if you’ve got more money to gamble, you’ll have more losses to deduct.

8. The Social Security earnings limit

Social security taxes only apply to income up to $118,500 – anything after that is social security tax-free. So the more money you make, the less your effective Social Security tax rate is, making this tax about as regressive as they come. Technically, of course, Social Security is a savings plan, not a tax. But the rich tend to live longer than the poor and receive benefits longer than lower wage earners, so an adjustment to the earnings limit would help offset this difference. Social Security’s own actuaries estimate that eliminating this cap would reduce the program’s long-term deficit by about 86 percent.

9. Retirement plans

The federal government incentivizes retirement by allowing you to reduce your taxable income by saving money in 401k plans or IRAs. But employer-sponsored retirement plans only benefit those people with employers that offer them (so, largely not people who work in retail, or the fast-food sector). And the benefit for IRAs doesn’t help people who have no money left over for retirement after they pay their living expenses. In total, about 66 percent of these retirement subsidies go to the top 20 percent of taxpayers. Less than 1 percent go to the bottom 20 percent.

10. Tax prep

If you have hired an accountant to help you sort through all of these tax breaks to make sure you maximize them — which the wealthy are much more likely to do — you get to write off that expense, too.

The profits you make off of selling physical gold is not taxable either from what I have read.

Thanks for putting these up.

Way too few people know about these breaks for the rich.

The Social Security cap is a long-time annoyance of mine; what's it now, 6.2%?

Ugh, factor that in to the marginal tax brackets:
10% $0 – $8,925
15% $8,926 – $36,250
25% $36,251 – $87,850
28% $87,851 – $183,250

If you factored the 6.2% Social Security tax in (it only applies to first $118,500) -
Someone earning $118,500/yr would pay $33,819.85 (28.5%).
Someone earning $183,250/yr would pay $51,949.85 (28.3%).

Earning more money past that cap (until you reach deep into the next brackets) means you get taxed less as a percentage of income.

a reply to: Greven

I'm currently on the live fast die young program. It helps me keep focused on the moment and I don't worry too much about the future. If there's any money left after I retire, I'll use it to buy a one way ticket to paradise.

a reply to: eisegesis

I personally do not see anything wrong with a number of those.

1. The mortgage interest deduction for big houses and second homes

The second home bit does sound off, but for the first most people couldn't afford homes without it.

2. The yacht tax deduction

It also applies to people who live aboard sailboats and have them as primary residence.

3. Rental property

Any money paid as rent is taxed as income although some people I have known will go on vacation and rent their home out to get the deduction but you can only deduct a certain amount based on the time rented.

5. The capital gains tax rate

Without this there wouldn't be much of a reason to go with a 401K. Working class.

6. The estate tax

I am not sure about this one.

7. Gambling loss deductions

If I buy 100 lotto tickets a year and win $10,000 dollars I can deduct $100 from the tax I would pay on it. Call a whaambulance.

8. The Social Security earnings limit

SS is capped on payout so it should be capped on how much you have to pay into it.

9. Retirement plans

Cry me a river. I paid into IRA's since I was in my 20s. If you want a 401K find a place that offers one. I think even Walmart employees can get in.

10. Tax prep

I think I paid my CPA about $300 last year and it went towards taxes. Anyone can write off tax preparations.

You forgot no-bid contracts for security services and rebuilding countries after theyre invaded ..

a reply to: eisegesis

What about the corporate bail-out of 2008, which went straight into the pockets of CEO's? This counts as government handouts for the rich, too. In addition to that, some corporations get paid money by the federal government during tax time instead of having to pay taxes.

Fantastic Thread.
If GE and Exxon were to pay what they owe;
We could end world hunger.
(a measly 40 billion look it up)

And for the heck of it we could have our schools
hospitals bridges and highways plated in gold.
Oh and CEO's would still be way too rich.

I would also like to point out part of Romney's 47% of people that don't pay income tax. Remember that old story?

Back in 2011, it was estimated that 24,000 filers in the top 1% of income earners did not pay income taxes - people making over $500k a year. An estimated 3,000 of those were making over $2m a year.

a reply to: eisegesis

These things are actually pretty reasonable. What if you live on a houseboat? And the capital gains surprises you? It's an incentive to get the wealthy to invest their money rather than sit on it. That 24% is actually much closer to the average person's tax rate. But it's not enough that no matter how you paint it, the wealthy still contribute more. Conversely, it's entirely possible for someone who pays absolutely nothing in taxes to get a refund. You want to complain about a handout? If the rich did that you're head might explode.

a reply to: Greven

The Social Security cap bothers you? Why not just say, "I wish the rich would contribute more towards my retirement for no reason."

a reply to: neveroddoreven99

Who do you think generally lives longer to collect said retirement, rich or poor?

Article in WSJ Today regarding the tax burden.

Top 20% ($134,300 HH income and greater) pay 84% of income taxes.

Those earning $615,000 or more earn 17.1% of total US Income, but pay 45% of income taxes.

Those in the bottom 20% ($47,300 or less) actually pay -3.2% of income taxes. In other words, the government pays them.

#1 - There's nothing wrong with the mortgage interest deduction - it's more beneficial for middle class folks as a percentage of their income than it is for the rich & ultra-rich.

#3 - If you owned a business you'd understand why this is deductible...it's part of the cost of running that business & comes off the top of whatever is left after they pay the tax/insurance/mortgage on their property - any business out there is allowed to deduct costs/expenses & it's only fair.

The only one's I think they might need to change are:
1. Maybe #2 Yacht Tax - if it's not your residence
2. #5 Capital Gains - If a self employed entrepreneur is paying 35% SE & SS tax then an essentially self employed hedge fund manager should be paying at least that.
3. #6 Estate Tax - $5.4mil does seem like a very high threshold...then again I don't think it's fair for the government to step in & take a cut of what you've spent your life building...which has very likely already been taxed a number of times. (this is really a redundant tax)

Everything else seems to be either a cost of business (which should be deductible as it comes out of profit which should be the only thing the IRS can tax), or it's equally beneficial for everybody.

As as Grimpachi pointed out - regarding the social security...the payout is capped, so the premiums should be capped...
I don't think we need to make that program any bigger than it is so...no...let's not increase the payouts & if they increased the premium it would hurt the poor much worse than the rich.

a reply to: Greven

Who do you think generally lives longer to collect said retirement, rich or poor?

While that does seem like it could be true it is a very general statement & as far as I know is really only your opinion.

There are poor people that live to be 100 & there are rich people that die at 20 and everything in between.

If you can find statistics then by all means post it....I'm sure they're out there but I've never taken the time to look that up as the payout is capped anyway.

a reply to: coldkidc
The Richer You Are the Older You’ll Get

Economist Barry Bosworth at the Brookings Institution crunched the numbers and found that the richer you are, the longer you’ll live. And it’s a gap that is widening, particularly among women.
...
Mr. Bosworth parsed this data from the University of Michigan’s Health and Retirement Study, a survey that tracks the health and work-life of 26,000 Americans as they age and retire. The data is especially valuable as it tracks the same individuals every two years in what’s known as a longitudinal study, to see how their lives unfold.
...
Take the example above. A wealthy man, born in 1920 who retired at age 65, could expect to draw Social Security for 19 years. His son, born in 1940 and retired at age 67, could expect to draw benefits for 24 years. Yes, he retired later, but he’s living longer.

This would not be true for men and women at the bottom. They would draw Social Security for fewer years, if the retirement age rises, and their longevity does not.

“It’s really hard to come up with some effective means of trying to equalize this,” Mr. Bosworth said, “and that’s a serious concern.”

The sample size is pretty good, and it's based on a longitudinal study (the best but hardest to do, as I recall). The charts in this article are pretty striking, and it's based on mid-career income.

A 55yr old man in the bottom 10% is expected to live 24.2 yrs while a man in the top 10% is expected to live 34.9 yrs.

a reply to: Greven

That's tough to fix that problem...probably some factor of it is that people making less during their lives have to work longer & retire later.

I don't see an easy way to change that - it's an unfortunate side effect of having more resources I guess...

Social security should be privatized anyway & I personally think you should be able to opt out of it completely if you wish to (I can mange my money better than they can)
...but...if they did that nobody would pay in except the people that depend on it...same problem they said they had with making Obamacare optional.

originally posted by: Edumakated
Article in WSJ Today regarding the tax burden.

Top 20% ($134,300 HH income and greater) pay 84% of income taxes.

Those earning $615,000 or more earn 17.1% of total US Income, but pay 45% of income taxes.

Those in the bottom 20% ($47,300 or less) actually pay -3.2% of income taxes. In other words, the government pays them.

Meanwhile, millionaire Mitt Romney publicly alleged that his tax rate was a mere... what was it again?

Mitt Romney paid a 14.1% effective tax rate on an income of over $13.7 million in 2011

Social Security is 6.2% alone, never mind the rest. I wish my tax rate was as low as his.

Speaking of Social Security, does this mystery article take that into account or does it just focus on income taxes?

originally posted by: coldkidc
Social security should be privatized anyway

Out of curiosity, why?

a reply to: Greven

Because I don't feel the government is ever the most efficient way to do something...especially when it comes to money.
I think people would see a lot better ROI if there was competition for their money.