Obama's tax plan, is the magic number $250k, $200k or $150k

[Ferocious]

Lower taxes for the middle class.

Back to Clinton tax levels for 250k and above earners.

That plan sounds like a winner!

 

[conehead433]

Obama's plan for tax relief sounds good but he could go further. No one making less than $20K should have to pay a dime in taxes.

 

[imported_Lothar]

Originally posted by: Xavier434

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
All these numbers going around are for families, what about individual tax payers? Are the numbers cut in half? Or is there a marriage penalty?

I would have to double check to be certain but I believe he is fighting the idea of the marriage penalty which is a good thing. The current laws are overdue for modernizing.

I hope a penalty would be in effect.
If there isn't one in effect, that means I have to pay an extra $942 in taxes under the Obama plan. :frown:
If there's a marriage penalty in effect, I get $2,135 back from the government.

 

[imported_Lothar]

Originally posted by: Deeko

Originally posted by: Xavier434

Keep in mind that Obama's tax plan is very similar to that of 1990s. In fact, it states right in the plan I linked above that "no family will pay higher taxes tax rates than they would have paid in the 1990s."

It is not like his plan is some kind of brand new thing that this country has never seen before or has not seen recently for that matter.

Exactly. It's mind-boggling that people are so up in arms about Obama's "socialist" tax plan, they act like returning tax levels to their Bill Clinton state is such a wild change.

It is for me.
Paying 0% tax versus paying 33+%? Big difference.

 

[GenHoth]

Originally posted by: Fern

Originally posted by: Dari
Maybe Biden meant to say 250K when he said 150K? And the 250K is for families while the 200K is for individuals who will see their tax go up 3%.

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
All these numbers going around are for families, what about individual tax payers? Are the numbers cut in half? Or is there a marriage penalty?

Yes, it looks like up to $250K for a "family" and $200K for a single taxpayer, thus there would be a marriage "penalty". I don't understand why in the heck he wants to do that. You're better off not getting married (or getting divorced) as it would result in $150K being taxed in a lower bracket. That's stupid.

It wasn't that long ago that we got rid of the "marriage penalty" in fed income tax, why go back?

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

Originally posted by: ElFenix
there is almost no such thing as a marriage penalty. mostly there is a marriage benefit.

If a couple makes more than $250k, it may be more beneficial to them to file separately than joint if individuals aren't going to get taxed higher unless they make more than $200k+.

Yes, we had a "marriage penalty" for some time, but it was fixed several years ago (in the GWB tax package in 2001).

No, there is no benefit to being married under tax law, for a while (under Clinton) there was, in fact, a penalty (i.e., two people were better off tax-wise remaining unmarried).

No filing "married filing seperately" offers no benefit whatsoever and certainly wouldn't get rid of any marriage penalty (under married filing seperately, everything for MFJ is simply chopped in half). MFS usually results in higher tax than MFJ, but never less.

There are a number of apparently useless ideas in Obama's plan (politicians and tax are a joke). Obama is said not want to reduce/eliminate the AMT (but will adjust the AMT deduction for inflation). If so, the many people making less than $250K (or $200K) will not get a reduction at all, they'll still be paying AMT. Moreover, Obama wants to phase-out deductions etc, while not increasing the tax rate per se, it will result in additional tax for some of those (not in AMT) making substanialy less than $250K. In tax lingo, this is a *back door* rate increase. I.e., looks like he's being disengenuois.

Likewise, even if he raises (regular) tax rates on those making above $250K, since are in AMT they may not actuall pay more taxes.

Eliminating cap gains for small business? Small businesses don't have capital gains except very very rarely. So, this makes no sense that I can tell. If this is intended to make investing in small business more attractive, it doesn't look intellegent to me. We already have very low cap gain rates for (profitable) sales of small business stock, and a provision that allows a complete write-off (against regular income) for any investment lost.

Much of his plan looks like *populist BS* to me, but hard to say for sure because it's so vague. But his plan isn't going to pass Congress without a lot of changes anyway. And I don't believe for a minute in a tax cut for everybody making under $200K.

I'll also note that I didn't see in his plan anything about eliminating the *fund manager* loophole that let's Warren Buffet pay such low taxes. I also note that the Dems have always blocked closure of that loophole (especially Schumer). IMO, that's a bunch of hypocritical crap - the rich should pay more, unless they are really really rich :disgust: Fund managers are the highest earners and make more than corp CEO etc.

I could say worse stuff about this plan, there are hidden *gems* all over, but because his plan lacks detail so I'll refrain for the moment. (hint: People need to pay real close attention to his plan that 40 million don't even need to file tax returns. I'l bet these are same 40 million who already don't get taxed anyway, instead getting *refundable credits*)

Fern

I love your posts Fern

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

Rolling back the irresponsible Bush tax cuts is not what I would consider a tax increase on the rich. It's removing an irresponsible and illogical tax cut that never should have been enacted.