According to my professor, tax laws are written by the rich, for the rich.

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SirStev0

Lifer
Nov 13, 2003
10,449
6
81
Originally posted by: DVK916
He said the government is in the pockets of the rich and big corps, and tax laws are passed to take from the poor to give to the rich. That when they do a tax cut for the rich, they raise taxes on the poor.

What do you think of this.

Regardless of how true this is...


DAMN LIBERAL ELITE PROFESSORS TRYING TO CHANGE OUR VALUES!!!
 

Fayd

Diamond Member
Jun 28, 2001
7,970
2
76
www.manwhoring.com
Originally posted by: DVK916
He said the government is in the pockets of the rich and big corps, and tax laws are passed to take from the poor to give to the rich. That when they do a tax cut for the rich, they raise taxes on the poor.

What do you think of this.

take a class on economics of tax policy. you will see that your current professor is full of ******.
 

AgaBoogaBoo

Lifer
Feb 16, 2003
26,108
5
81
I read most of the posts in this thread and can't really say I have an opinion at this point. It is interesting to see how 50% of the country pays 96% of tax or whatever the number is, the point to be made is that they're paying the major portions.

I would also say that your teacher should be letting you draw your own conclusions by presenting the information, it's not supposed to be a sales pitch or something.
 

jinduy

Diamond Member
Jan 24, 2002
4,781
1
81
your professor is correct. if you're into investing, real estate, business, etc, you'll know that there are very significant loopholes in the system to avoid paying taxes on certain gains.
 

XMan

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
12,513
49
91
Corporations don't pay taxes. They increase the prices of their goods and services and pass their tax burden onto their customers.
 

pstylesss

Platinum Member
Mar 21, 2007
2,914
0
0
Originally posted by: XMan
Corporations don't pay taxes. They increase the prices of their goods and services and pass their tax burden onto their customers.

You don't know what you're talking about. Increased revenue means increased taxes. It's all percentages. You charge more, you make more, you pay more.

 
Jun 27, 2005
19,216
1
61
Originally posted by: ZeroIQ
Originally posted by: XMan
Corporations don't pay taxes. They increase the prices of their goods and services and pass their tax burden onto their customers.

You don't know what you're talking about. Increased revenue means increased taxes. It's all percentages. You charge more, you make more, you pay more.
Umm... Taxes are a cost of doing business. If you want to make more you calculate that cost into your price. It's not about revenues and taxes... it's about how much you want to make as a business owner.

When you run a business you'll understand.
 

aCynic2

Senior member
Apr 28, 2007
710
0
0
Originally posted by: pyonir
Originally posted by: Pacfanweb
The rich pay the VAST majority of the taxes.

No doubt about that, but at what percent of their income? Are they paying more than the ~25% of my gross income i pay?

You need to get more deductions. My tax rate was 11% in 2006, unless of course you're making something in the six figures, you'll get more taken. I'm right around the prime area of $40,000.
 

pstylesss

Platinum Member
Mar 21, 2007
2,914
0
0
Originally posted by: Whoozyerdaddy
Originally posted by: ZeroIQ
Originally posted by: XMan
Corporations don't pay taxes. They increase the prices of their goods and services and pass their tax burden onto their customers.

You don't know what you're talking about. Increased revenue means increased taxes. It's all percentages. You charge more, you make more, you pay more.
Umm... Taxes are a cost of doing business. If you want to make more you calculate that cost into your price. It's not about revenues and taxes... it's about how much you want to make as a business owner.

When you run a business you'll understand.

I do run a business, I do understand. If you make enough to get out of your current tax bracket, you pay more -- it's not a hard concept. To say that a corp doesn't pay taxes is ridiculous.
 

XMan

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
12,513
49
91
Originally posted by: ZeroIQ
Originally posted by: Whoozyerdaddy
Originally posted by: ZeroIQ
Originally posted by: XMan
Corporations don't pay taxes. They increase the prices of their goods and services and pass their tax burden onto their customers.

You don't know what you're talking about. Increased revenue means increased taxes. It's all percentages. You charge more, you make more, you pay more.
Umm... Taxes are a cost of doing business. If you want to make more you calculate that cost into your price. It's not about revenues and taxes... it's about how much you want to make as a business owner.

When you run a business you'll understand.

I do run a business, I do understand. If you make enough to get out of your current tax bracket, you pay more -- it's not a hard concept. To say that a corp doesn't pay taxes is ridiculous.

So if your tax burden increases, you'll absorb the extra cost out of your pocket and continue to charge your customers the same amount of money?
 

oboeguy

Diamond Member
Dec 7, 1999
3,907
0
76
Originally posted by: Pacfanweb
Originally posted by: pyonir
Originally posted by: Pacfanweb
The rich pay the VAST majority of the taxes.

No doubt about that, but at what percent of their income? Are they paying more than the ~25% of my gross income i pay?
Hell yes, they are. Top tax bracket is 35%. That is PLENTY high. The 25% bracket is for folks in the 31-64k range.
The percentage should NOT keep going up as income increases.

In fact, if they really want to make things fair, they need to go with a flat tax across the board. The rich will still pay the majority of the taxes, but everyone will pay the same percentage of their income.

The top tax bracket is 15%, i.e. the long-term capital gains rate. Truly rich people aren't wage slaves; they live off of investment interest. Poor(er) people don't have the leverage to do that. Yes, tax laws favor rich people. To say any different is to be completely ignorant.
 

pstylesss

Platinum Member
Mar 21, 2007
2,914
0
0
Originally posted by: XMan
Originally posted by: ZeroIQ
Originally posted by: Whoozyerdaddy
Originally posted by: ZeroIQ
Originally posted by: XMan
Corporations don't pay taxes. They increase the prices of their goods and services and pass their tax burden onto their customers.

You don't know what you're talking about. Increased revenue means increased taxes. It's all percentages. You charge more, you make more, you pay more.
Umm... Taxes are a cost of doing business. If you want to make more you calculate that cost into your price. It's not about revenues and taxes... it's about how much you want to make as a business owner.

When you run a business you'll understand.

I do run a business, I do understand. If you make enough to get out of your current tax bracket, you pay more -- it's not a hard concept. To say that a corp doesn't pay taxes is ridiculous.

So if your tax burden increases, you'll absorb the extra cost out of your pocket and continue to charge your customers the same amount of money?

I guess for me that would be the case - I can't charge much more than any one else would for a website. I don't pay many more taxes than the Federal corporate tax, so I don't have to worry about much else. But that's not the point. You made the statement that corps don't pay taxes, which isn't true.

As far as passing cost on to your customers, you do that with any sort of overhead, not just taxes.
 

XMan

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
12,513
49
91
Originally posted by: ZeroIQ
Originally posted by: XMan
Originally posted by: ZeroIQ
Originally posted by: Whoozyerdaddy
Originally posted by: ZeroIQ
Originally posted by: XMan
Corporations don't pay taxes. They increase the prices of their goods and services and pass their tax burden onto their customers.

You don't know what you're talking about. Increased revenue means increased taxes. It's all percentages. You charge more, you make more, you pay more.
Umm... Taxes are a cost of doing business. If you want to make more you calculate that cost into your price. It's not about revenues and taxes... it's about how much you want to make as a business owner.

When you run a business you'll understand.

I do run a business, I do understand. If you make enough to get out of your current tax bracket, you pay more -- it's not a hard concept. To say that a corp doesn't pay taxes is ridiculous.

So if your tax burden increases, you'll absorb the extra cost out of your pocket and continue to charge your customers the same amount of money?

I guess for me that would be the case - I can't charge much more than any one else would for a website. I don't pay many more taxes than the Federal corporate tax, so I don't have to worry about much else. But that's not the point. You made the statement that corps don't pay taxes, which isn't true.

As far as passing cost on to your customers, you do that with any sort of overhead, not just taxes.

Where do corporations get the money to pay their taxes? The cost of taxation is built into the cost you charge for your product - otherwise you wouldn't be i business.
 

pstylesss

Platinum Member
Mar 21, 2007
2,914
0
0
Originally posted by: XMan
Originally posted by: ZeroIQ
Originally posted by: XMan
Originally posted by: ZeroIQ
Originally posted by: Whoozyerdaddy
Originally posted by: ZeroIQ
Originally posted by: XMan
Corporations don't pay taxes. They increase the prices of their goods and services and pass their tax burden onto their customers.

You don't know what you're talking about. Increased revenue means increased taxes. It's all percentages. You charge more, you make more, you pay more.
Umm... Taxes are a cost of doing business. If you want to make more you calculate that cost into your price. It's not about revenues and taxes... it's about how much you want to make as a business owner.

When you run a business you'll understand.

I do run a business, I do understand. If you make enough to get out of your current tax bracket, you pay more -- it's not a hard concept. To say that a corp doesn't pay taxes is ridiculous.

So if your tax burden increases, you'll absorb the extra cost out of your pocket and continue to charge your customers the same amount of money?

I guess for me that would be the case - I can't charge much more than any one else would for a website. I don't pay many more taxes than the Federal corporate tax, so I don't have to worry about much else. But that's not the point. You made the statement that corps don't pay taxes, which isn't true.

As far as passing cost on to your customers, you do that with any sort of overhead, not just taxes.

Where do corporations get the money to pay their taxes? The cost of taxation is built into the cost you charge for your product - otherwise you wouldn't be i business.

So therefore taxation just doesn't exist because you offset the cost of taxes by the amount you charge your customers? You're sadly mistaken if you think taxes don't cut into net profit.
 

Jaskalas

Lifer
Jun 23, 2004
33,952
8,007
136
Originally posted by: krunchykrome
I think your professor should omit his personal opinions from the curriculum.

Liberal opinion IS the curriculum. Certainly you've been in enough classes to recognize that. :)
 

DVK916

Banned
Dec 12, 2005
2,765
0
0
Personally it should be illegal pass on the cost of taxes to the consumers. Their should be price caps on goods, strictly enforced ones. Such as no more than a 2-3% increase a year in a price of a good, and if it is a necessity then perhaps the government should be the sole provider of it.
 

Jmman

Diamond Member
Dec 17, 1999
5,302
0
76
Originally posted by: DVK916
Personally it should be illegal pass on the cost of taxes to the consumers. Their should be price caps on goods, strictly enforced ones. Such as no more than a 2-3% increase a year in a price of a good, and if it is a necessity then perhaps the government should be the sole provider of it.


Ask Chavez how well your scheme will work......:confused:

And to the people that were talking about a person with 20k in income paying $7k in taxes, you must be smoking crack. My handy little calculator puts your tax at about $1250, or a little over 6%. Hardly excessive in my opinion......
 

Termagant

Senior member
Mar 10, 2006
765
0
0
Originally posted by: Jaskalas
Originally posted by: krunchykrome
I think your professor should omit his personal opinions from the curriculum.

Liberal opinion IS the curriculum. Certainly you've been in enough classes to recognize that. :)

A college level course is for the big kids. In high school the impressionable children should be spared opinion except when absolutely necessary. At the university level, opinion can encourage debate, and the professors are providing their personal take on the subject they devote their life to. If conservatives don't like that they can either:

a.) become more intellectual and become professors
b.) don't attend college
c.) attend a "conservative" college like Liberty University
 

blackangst1

Lifer
Feb 23, 2005
22,902
2,359
126
Originally posted by: DVK916
He said the government is in the pockets of the rich and big corps, and tax laws are passed to take from the poor to give to the rich. That when they do a tax cut for the rich, they raise taxes on the poor.

What do you think of this.

Your professor is very very confused.
 

blackangst1

Lifer
Feb 23, 2005
22,902
2,359
126
Originally posted by: mfs378
Its tough to define fair, but I'm pretty sure that we can agree that if you earn more, the fraction you pay in (overall) taxes shouldn't be less. That can happen (and happens often) under the current tax system. Hence, the conclusion that tax code is biased toward the wealthy.

Wait...doesnt the percentage of taxes increase as your income does?

Thought so.
 

Stunt

Diamond Member
Jul 17, 2002
9,717
2
0
Taxes are a difficult animal to tame; there's 'fair' taxation and 'efficient' taxation and the two typically conflict.

First off I'll agree in saying the current tax code favors the extremely rich; as they do not make their money from income but money generating assets. For example Warren Buffett has always pointed out that he effective tax rate is much lower than his secretary's because he doesn't make much income, but takes in a lot of money from dividends. Dividend rate in the US is going to zero: "Under the new law, dividends are taxed at a 15 percent rate for most individual taxpayers. Dividends received by low income individuals are taxed at a five percent rate until December 31, 2007 and become fully untaxed in 2008. These provisions are set to expire on January 1, 2011." Even in Canada, dividends are taxed at 1/3 your income tax rate. This is where tax fairness can come into play.

Thinking about it another way; say the government decides to offer a tax cut and has $3Billion to do so. It has several choices tax cuts to a certain income level, across all individuals or to corporations. If the government offers a tax incentive to a company who would otherwise invest in a factory overseas; a factory on US soil will help more Americans get jobs and generate more wealth. Say the government decides to raise the personal exemption rate for all people; this would give every American $10, which is absolutely nothing on the grand scheme of things. With that $10, people will buy a piddly item that costs literally nothing to make; probably from a foreign country. The job growth in this situation is literally nothing. If the government focuses the money on the wealthy (top bracket) the $3Billion is concentrated on say 300,000 instead of 300m people. This will give the rich $10,000 to play with; if most of them use that money to buy assets, services or toys...this will actually create jobs. The most effective use of money is to favor the rich and corporations.
 

zuljinAF

Member
Nov 17, 2003
43
0
0
Flat tax and national sells tax IMO, If the rich earn the extra money, let them spend it and get it back to the gov?t through a sales tax. The poor would spend less on extra goods and thus the sales tax would affect them less..

Then again I live by the quote ?live in debt die with life insurance? ??