0 Tax

The Vice President Joe Biden recently said it was our patriotic duty to pay taxes and this week Treasury Secretary Geithner said we should pay taxes for the privilege of living in America. Whether you agree or not it should be pointed out that 50% of all wage earners in the country pay zero income tax. When you don’t pay federal income tax you don’t pay state income tax or in many cases city income tax. Does that mean that half of our citizens are unpatriotic or do not have the privilege of living here. It should be pointed out that everyone pays payroll taxes (social security and Medicare) and that payroll taxes bring in 80% of the amount that income tax brings in. A family of four has to earn $95,000 before they pay 7.65% of their income in income tax and this is the percent of income that lower income people pay in payroll tax. I point this out because many articles give the impression that the payroll tax is not much of a burden. Keep in mind that the family of four that pays income tax also pays payroll tax. These figures tell us that if you want to raise a significant amount from taxes you have to tax everyone. Taxing the rich just doesn’t cut it.