By the Numbers: What the 47 Percent Who Pay No Income Tax Look Like

so add up all the wealth of that 47% and do the same for the top group and see who can affford to pay.

Whaaa! Everybody should pay something. If everybody has skin in the game maybe they won't take everything that this country has to offer for granted like so many do. Put up or shut up and get off your lazy #$%$ and contribute to society instead of being a parasite.

My 75 year-old mother doesn't pay any federal income taxes. She's retired and lives on about a thousand dollars of social security each month. She worked full time as a secretary since graduating college in 1959 - and paid federal income taxes for 45 years until her retirement at age 68 in 2004. She also raised two kids as a single parent and now my sister and I both work full time and pay federal income taxes.Ironically, while I applaud the determination and drive of the individuals in the pictures on the 'We are the 53%' blog, it's very likely that the young students that claim to work three jobs while carrying a full class load actually make less than the standard deduction ($5,800) plus the personal exemption ($3,700). If this is the case than they would actually be part of the group that pays no federal income tax - the 47% as opposed to the 53%. Of course I have no way of knowing the details but I just want to point out that we would really need more info to #$%$ these situations.Taxes are a complex issue. I'm not sure why someone would be so enraged that my elderly mom pays no federal income taxes when she contributed her fair share for longer than most folks in the pictures on the 53% website have been alive.

Grace Commission Report. Always give this info when Republicans start crying about how 47% don't pay taxes.

Resistance to additional income taxes would be even more widespread if people were aware that:

One-third of all their taxes is consumed by waste and inefficiency in the Federal Government as we identified in our survey.

Another one-third of all their taxes escapes collection from others as the underground economy blossoms in direct proportion to tax increases and places even more pressure on law abiding taxpayers, promoting still more underground economy-a vicious cycle that must be broken.

With two-thirds of everyone's personal income taxes wasted or not collected, 100 percent of what is collected is absorbed solely by interest on the Federal debt and by Federal Government contributions to transfer payments. In other words, all individual income tax revenues are gone before one nickel is spent on the services which taxpayers expect from their Government.

All of this is not an excuse for allowing all our jobs going to china, It's not an excuse for allowing the middle class to disappear. Alot of the protest is not about the rich. And a day laborer is not self employed, it's a day laborer.

Well I gas sales tax, fees on fuel, utilities, food, devaluing the currency and anything else involved in trying to survive dont count etc... We call it Hidden tax, to some value added tax. I used to fall for the income tax argument, as if it was the only tax. By reducing Disposable income among those that spend here in the U.S.A....Is far more damaging revenue wise then what is collected in personal income tax..... You PAY TAXES, AND HIDDEN FEES on EVERYTHING.

Nobody here seems to have figured in mortgage interest deduction--the big reason most baby boomers bought houses in the first place. Your deduction makes it so that the taxes you used to pay on the 1040 shift to local property taxes--so your tax burden goes from federal to local (police,fire,schools,etc). Example: family of four, income of $60K, mortgage deduction of $20K, personal deduction of $11500, all other Sched A deductions of $8500 (property tax, medical,etc). Net is around $20K -- below the level of much tax.
Add in the EITC or a Sched C small business startup costs and (federal) tax rate drops to zero. The government WANTS you to invest in a house for 3 stability points: 1)you are invested in the community so you will support law and order 2) people that can't move around the country easily are easier to track/control 3) you have bought into the whole financial system and will probably be able to support your dependents barring disaster,
plus the government can count on your complacency for the life of your mortgage.

I do taxes for a living. I have clients who are worth 8 figures and pay zero taxes. It's called tax planning. Aggressive? Yes. But with the thousands of loopholes offered in the tax code, a good tax accountant can make an earner of $1M pay less in a tax rate than a person who makes $50K. It's all about the wages, baby! If all you make is a wage, you will never benefit from the tax code. The tax code is for owners and speculators. Sad but true. The IRS is meant to screw the little guy, especially now with the automatically generated audit letters that are mailed without anyone actually examining return in hopes you just mail that check in.

And those 8 clients of mine? You bet they're on the side of the We are the 53%ers, despite never having worked a day in their life and living off of what Granddaddy did.

I am in the same situation as you but will not change my position and be a part of welfare or food stamps. I am not against the people who take it. Maybe one day we have to take it. In real life many things can happen a we can be on another side.

From 1992 through 2008 I was in the 25% bracket. With the economic disaster my business has been destroyed. I am now in the no tax bracket. Believe me when I say i would rather still be in the 25% bracket. 50 years old and struggling to get by.In 2007 I had 8 fulltime employees who made between $44K and $68K with benefits on top, now no one will hire me, over qualified is the reason given. Be grateful for what you have it can change in a hurry.

I know one senior woman. She makes $674 a month. Her rent is $520. She does not receive Section 8 since she has never won the lottery that is held here. She receives a "cash-out" check for food stamps, which means she does pay sales tax since it is not a SNAP card owing to her inability to get to the welfare office every month. She receives medicare.
Now, please, explain to me how her life is "cushy" and "comfortable". She never learned to drive so luckily no car or car insurance. She still needs to pay a portion for her meds. She gets a one time help on her electric. Needs to pay for her cooking gas and phone. (Those yelling about the cell phones, here's something very few ever knew, the poor and disabled have been getting home phone service for $10 a month since forever. So the free cell phone is just the flip side of that since you can't have both. Although with the home phone, you are not allowed caller id, call waiting, or any other extra service.)
Not everyone on the system wants to be there or is living the "good life".This elderly lady never had any children.
If a person here wants an education, they are automatically taken off of food stamps and told that if they want to better themselvesto get off the system, they now have no right to eat. How is that not flawed? I have known others that would get a job only to be fired by the "rich" business owner before the six month limit is up, all so that the owner would not have to fork over the "benefits" like medical, etc. And then would just keep hiring new people, all to avoid paying out for medical. Is that how "trickle down" is supposed to work?

build here,sell here ,problem solved

Randy
I remember busting my butt working over time and in the national guard to make 20000 and uncle sam took 15 percent thats 3000 dollars that they gave to some unmaried women with illegitamit kids so I say screw working hard
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Currently in America, there are approximately 307 million people. According to the article, that means 95 million don't earn more than $15K a year. The vast majority of these families are NOT comprised of unemployed, single women with illegitimate children. In those cases, your frustration should be equally directed at the nameless fathers that fail to adequately support their children. Consider the workers out there that work just as hard as your description of yourself. The 1.3 million migrant farm workers work every day from sunrise to sunset. These individuals only average $6250 a year. Remember the millions of tipped laborers and the other positions that are exempt, by statute, from the federal minimum wage. If you were not aware, there are four states which pay labor below the wage standards because they never accepted the fed's rules. Sociologists have found that in "ideal" situations, children can normally pull themselves up one or two levels from their parents. If cuts in education continue, these children will have a hard time staying just even with their parents. Despite what you alluded earlier, not ALL poverty-stricken Americans seek to stay poor.

@timetostandup those peoples time is comming - dont worry.., it might not be the way u want & or fast enuff like u want - but they'll hafta answer in the end - everyone will!..

not one word about rich corp,s or just rich people with lots of loop holes they pay but how much many of obams people he pick did not pay at all

Pick the tomatos in Alabama

Certain people who do pay income taxes will of course always say that they support the poor because the poor pay little or no taxes. The truth is that only the American companies had the power to move their manufacturing operations abroad, not the middle class or the poor. They just went to work every day until their jobs were farmed out to the poor masses in the third world.

The economy has systematically being destroyed by all those companies that no longer have manufacturing plants in the U.S. I do think that the government is to blame for the job exodus, as they have allowed it. In many cases they have actually supported it by providing financial assistance to companies that relocated their manufacturing operations to certain poor countries. At the same time that good payiong jobs were moved out of the country, we have been flooded with millions of low skilled, marginal educated third world laborers, as our "leaders" were not very serious about border control. Those low wage earners coudn't be used to fill manufacturing jobs and used it at a competitive asset, but were used to fill those "undesirable" agricultural jobs. In the process those new arrivals displaced American workers such as truck drivers, painters, cooks, construction workers, welders, mechanics and the list goes on and on.

Our "leaders" always talk about "job creation" but the jobs that are created are predominantly low income jobs. For the past 30+ years, the number of low paying jobs has risen steadily and they account now for 41 percent of all jobs in the United States.

We basically make almost no products anymore. Just check out any product on the shelves in our stores. Even lots of food products are now being imported. Boeing airplanes, John Deer and Caterpillar machinery and Harley Davidson are some of the few major domestic and export items that are still true American. How long will it take before deals are made with foreign governments and companies to have those products made abroad? By the way, America's # 1 export to China is now trash, such as baled UBC (aluminum cans), PET and HDPE (plastic Coke, water and milk bottles and jugs). China's major export items to the United States are computers and computer parts. Figure that one out! These are all self (government) inflicted wounds for which the majority of the American people are paying the price now.

Raising across the board taxes on the rich and corporations is not the solution. Instead provide a competitive tax rate and other incentives, such as lightning speed processing of local, state and federal permit applications, to companies who create good manufacturing jobs in the U.S.. Whether it is a domestic established company, a start up, or a foreign based company that moves all or part of its operations to the U.S., they all should be rewarded when they create real jobs.

Bring those exported jobs back to the U.S., restrict legal and illegal immigration, have competitive tax and business permit rates and cut back all govenment spending. If the politicians are really serious about reversing the decline of this great country, than this woud be a good start!

You should correctly report your statistics. These are incomes reported to the IRS and does not include the amounts people earned while working for "Mr CASH". Seeing a small restaurant cachier ring up 0.00 if you are paying cash, car repairs where after the work they insist on cash or write someone else name on the check (since they are on unemployment), adults on disability wanting to be paid (for babysitting or house sitting) in cash or decline the job. People on housing subsity because they are single mothers but got a man sleeping in the bed complaining about me making too much noise as I repair the hot water heater. ETC ETC. the tax cheats on the low end go on and on and on.

My little business,has eight employees. They all make over 30K a year and I pay half the health care.They get paid holidays and vacations. I pay myself 70K and my taxes are 24% of that not including my payroll. That leaves me around 53K and the state of Va. takes their
share and then I'm hit with more taxes because I goofed and took a 6k deduction for a IRA,and only spent 5k. Get me a break!!!
All of you

#1) The Top 1% Owns 40% of the Nation's Wealth:

Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz points out the richest 1% of Americans now own 40% of the nation's wealth. This disparity is much worse than it was in the past, as just 25 years ago the top 1% owned 33% of national wealth.
How much does the bottom 80% own? Only 7%.

#2) The Top 1% Take Home 24% of National Income:

While the richest 1% of Americans take home almost a quarter of national income today, in 1976 they took home just 9% -- meaning their share of the national income pool has nearly tripled in roughly three decades.

#3) The Top 1% Own Half of the Country's Stocks, Bonds and Mutual Funds:

The Institute for Policy Studies illustrates this massive disparity in financial investment ownership, noting that the bottom 50% of Americans own only 0.5% of these investments.

#4) The Top 1% of Americans Have Only 5% of the Nation's Personal Debt:

Using 2007 figures, sociologist William Domhoff points out that the top 1% have 5% of the nation's personal debt while the bottom 90% have 73% of total debt.

#5) The Top 1% Are Taking In More off the Nation's Income Than at Any Other Time Since the 1920s:

Not only are the wealthiest 1% of Americans taking home a tremendous portion of the national income, but their share of this income is greater than at any other time since the Great Depression, as the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities illustrates in this chart, using 2007 data.