LawTalkers - Waiting for Fitzgerald

Originally posted by bilmore
A major driver of this effort is eleimination or degradation of the AMT. To the extent that AMT is another artifical move away from the flat tax, this is a removal of engineering.

I thought the AMT helped move us much closer to a flat tax, since it gets rid of the effect of many of those deductions you are railing against. (Simple? No. Flatter? Yes.)

bilmore

10-20-2005 03:20 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Captain
I thought the AMT helped move us much closer to a flat tax, since it gets rid of the effect of many of those deductions you are railing against.

To some extent, true, but it has such a sharp and defined (and catastrophic) cut-in that it's not truly doing that job well. Tax rate plotting should yield gentle hills, not huge insurmountable cliffs.

taxwonk

10-20-2005 03:39 PM

A Question of Balance

Quote:

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
Which Bentley should I go for? Continental GT or Arnage?

I disagree. We are middle class. The new middle class is $75k to $250k. No, I'm not kidding.

My wife and I are both professionals, live in a nice area, in a fairly nice small, affordable home. Drive used cars.

We are OK. I ain't worried about paying the mortgage. But RICH? Not. Anywhere. Near. It.

Try living in California and owning a decent home in a good area on $100k. $100k is the new $50k. Fuck, the private school I will have to send the kid to for high school is already $25k.

The people you're describing as middle class are now "poor."

Or maybe I'm nuts. Its possible. But one thing I ain't is rich.

ETA: Upper middle class is $250k - $400k. Rich starts at $600k. Doing really nice is $400k to $600k.

ETA2: Numbers and cutoffs obviously differ if you're single and based on whether you have kids.

According to the Statistics of Income Bulleting, for 2003, the last year for which data are available, taxpayer with between $100,000 and $200,000 accounted for 10% of all taxpayers. Taxpayers earning over $200K amounted to 2.8-2.95% of all taxpayers.

Like I said, you're rich.

Penske_Account

10-20-2005 03:44 PM

A Question of Balance

Quote:

Originally posted by taxwonk
According to the Statistics of Income Bulleting, for 2003, the last year for which data are available, taxpayer with between $100,000 and $200,000 accounted for 10% of all taxpayers. Taxpayers earning over $200K amounted to 2.8-2.95% of all taxpayers.

Like I said, you're rich.

Income or balance sheet?

bilmore

10-20-2005 03:47 PM

A Question of Balance

Quote:

Just curious, 'cuz I ain't a taxwonk - when they say "taxpayor", do they mean, people who paid taxes, or do they also mean to include the vast swath at the bottom who pay no taxes?

Hank Chinaski

10-20-2005 03:48 PM

A Question of Balance

Quote:

Originally posted by Penske_Account
Income or balance sheet?

Are you still paying alimony to the first wife? I bet it takes her a long time to get the checks to the bank for cashing.

taxwonk

10-20-2005 03:49 PM

A Question of Balance

Quote:

Originally posted by Penske_Account
Income or balance sheet?

Income.

taxwonk

10-20-2005 03:52 PM

A Question of Balance

Quote:

Originally posted by bilmore
Just curious, 'cuz I ain't a taxwonk - when they say "taxpayor", do they mean, people who paid taxes, or do they also mean to include the vast swath at the bottom who pay no taxes?

That was for taxable returns. If you add in the filers who don't pay taxes, then the percentage for the $100-200K bracket goes down to 6.8% and the number for over $200K is 1.9%

Oliver_Wendell_Ramone

10-20-2005 03:53 PM

For RT

DeLay's mug shot.

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Co...12p.vsmall.jpg

Replaced_Texan

10-20-2005 03:54 PM

For RT

Quote:

Originally posted by Oliver_Wendell_Ramone
DeLay's mug shot.

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Co...12p.vsmall.jpg

Motherfucking jackass. (Not you, ollie)

Penske_Account

10-20-2005 03:55 PM

A Question of Balance

Quote:

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
Are you still paying alimony to the first wife? I bet it takes her a long time to get the checks to the bank for cashing.

Alimony?!?! LOL! When I said my finishing kick was lethal I did not mean to infer that the lethality was limited to the oval. Scorched earth baby.

bilmore

10-20-2005 03:55 PM

A Question of Balance

Quote:

Originally posted by Penske_Account
Income or balance sheet?

C'mon, that's skewed. I probably have a better balance sheet right now than Northwest Airlines, but I bet NWA can afford more expensive scotch and better hookers than I can.

Cash flow, baby.

Penske_Account

10-20-2005 03:57 PM

A Question of Balance

Quote:

Originally posted by taxwonk
Income.

Exactly. As Sebbie implied, income "rich" is illusory and will remain so if the patriotic freepeople's of this country allow the dimwits to demonise the hardworking entreprenuereal class with oppressive progressive taxation.

bilmore

10-20-2005 03:57 PM

A Question of Balance

Quote:

Originally posted by taxwonk
That was for taxable returns. If you add in the filers who don't pay taxes, then the percentage for the $100-200K bracket goes down to 6.8% and the number for over $200K is 1.9%

Yeah, I thought that might make your point even stronger.

Penske_Account

10-20-2005 03:58 PM

For RT

Quote:

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
Motherfucking jackass. (Not you, ollie)

the babyjesuschristsuperstar hates the hate.

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