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http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/25589.htmlNearly
"About 46.6 Million Filers Were "Nonpayers" Due to Exemptions, Deductions, Credits
Washington, DC, December 4, 2009 -- Nearly one-third of the 143 million federal income tax returns filed in 2007 resulted in no tax payment, according to a Tax Foundation analysis of IRS data. That means the tax filers got back every dollar that had been withheld from their paychecks, and often more. Roughly 46.6 million tax returns, or 32.6 percent, are filed by such "nonpayers," people whose exemptions, deductions and credits wiped out any federal income tax due.
"In about half the cases, additional money was 'refunded' to these tax filers -- meaning they received a check from the government -- similar to welfare spending programs," said Tax Foundation President Scott Hodge, who authored Tax Foundation Fiscal Fact No. 202, "Surge of 'Nonpayers' Will Be Part of Bush Tax Legacy." The Fiscal Fact is available online at http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/25586.html.
The percentage of "nonpayers" in 2007 is the second-highest, slightly lower than the all-time highest in 2006, when 33 percent of tax filers paid nothing. A record has been set every year since 2002 (30.1 percent), as tax cuts throughout the Bush years -- especially the refundable child tax credit -- pushed low- to middle-income people off the federal income tax rolls.
"The number of 'nonpayers' can be expected to soar due to programs such as President Obama's 'Making Work Pay' tax credit," Hodge said. "We now have an enormous class of Americans who are disconnected from the cost of government and have no skin in the game, and that is not good for democracy."
The percentage of nonpayers was fairly low in the 1960s and again in the early 1980s. The number of federal income tax returns filed with zero or negative income tax liability each year from 1950-2007 is available online at http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/25587.html."
The Tax Foundation is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that has monitored fiscal policy at the federal, state and local levels since 1937.
How much longer are we going to be able to sustain this if progressively less and less people are paying taxes?
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motbob
United States12546 Posts
payroll taxes make up a LOT of revenue for the U.S. government
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Come to Croatia, here you HAVE to pay taxes or else they just take it from you...one way or another you'll pay.
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Can someone explain the difference between income tax and payroll tax? I quickly looked at the wiki for payroll tax and it just sounds the same as income tax to me.
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On December 17 2009 05:55 IceCube wrote:
Come to Croatia, here you HAVE to pay taxes or else they just take it from you...one way or another you'll pay.
I should have quoted this too as it was at the top of the article.
"About 46.6 Million Filers Were "Nonpayers" Due to Exemptions, Deductions, Credits"
as in they basically didn't qualify to pay taxes probably because they didn't earn enough. Probably also meaning their contribution to the payroll tax section of the pie was also small.
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On December 17 2009 06:00 Mastermind wrote:
Can someone explain the difference between income tax and payroll tax? I quickly looked at the wiki for payroll tax and it just sounds the same as income tax to me.
I believe payroll tax is what is paid by the employer based on its payroll. Then income tax is what the employee pays (although this is withold from your paycheck by the company).
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I'm not too sure if its the same in the US, but here in canada for payroll taxes we pay for CPP (canadian pension plan) and EI (employment insurance or unemployment insurance depending on how you look at it). when CPP and EI are deducted from your paychq your employer must remit your CPP and EI taken from your paychq as well as the employers portion of CPP and EI. CPP for the employer is equal to your amount and EI is 1.4 times your amount.
Income tax on the other is the taxes you owe for earning income.
Hope that helps clear it up.
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@motbob's chart
OP's article takes payroll taxes into account, that is, one-third of filers "got back every dollar that had been withheld from their paychecks," so they are classified as " 'nonpayers,' people whose exemptions, deductions and credits wiped out any federal income tax due."
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motbob
United States12546 Posts
On December 17 2009 06:22 datscilly wrote:
@motbob's chart
OP's article takes payroll taxes into account, that is, one-third of filers "got back every dollar that had been withheld from their paychecks," so they are classified as " 'nonpayers,' people whose exemptions, deductions and credits wiped out any federal income tax due."
That's different than Medicare and Social Security, which everyone pays and doesn't get back until they retire.
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I made $14k USD two tax seasons ago, (roughly two years ago) and I had to pay taxes to "the man".
They explained it to me in the following way: since I didn't have any dependents and was a full time student I was making "too much money". I wanted to rip someone's head off too much money is $14K a year? I was working my ass off trying to save up money. I had a full time job (which I often worked overtime in) and on top of that I was a full time student and so the government deemed it that I was too wealthy for my own good.
Maybe now they will start taxing the rich a higher % and not depend on the middle class as much. 
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BuGzIToOnI, it's not that you make too much, it's that you aren't getting much deducted per pay check, so at the end of the year, you didn't pay the amount you should have, based on the fact that you have no dependents. Being a student actually gives you a tax credit usually because they factor in cost of attendance (Your school should have given you a tax form with info about tuition and what not) I made about 20k last year and was a part time student, Federal owed me money and I owed State like $50. If you want the government to take out more per check, which allows you to usually get a refund at tax time, then you just change the info on your W4 so it says you have 1 or 0 dependency status. Also as a student, always make sure you never itemize deductions, just use the default credit. Basically if you made 14k, they should have only been able to tax at most half of that. Which means they are taking the same percent they give to everybody off of 7k, if what you paid them throughout the year does not = the % of 7k then you owe them more, if you paid more than the % of 7k then they refund you the overage.
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working for my state university cafeteria i pay like ~4% taxes so i dont really even mind. only thing i pay is state tax no federal/social security/whatever
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Bear in mind that about 1/3 of people make less than 25k a year, so it really doesn't make much sense for those people to be paying taxes.
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I work fulltime and i am a fulltime college student. government rapes 1/3 of my paycheck
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On December 17 2009 06:35 BuGzlToOnl wrote:Maybe now they will start taxing the rich a higher % and not depend on the middle class as much.
Seriously.... how the fuck do they expect dependent students who go to college on their own, technically as a dependant, and work on their own.. how do they expect these kids to buy cars and continue in the real world while they rape the chunk of income they NEED to save, leaving them only with what they can get by with.
That is why I'm gonna figure out how to get rich before I graduate college. Wish me glhf, tyty
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yea so? The gov't also gave out free stimulus money to like 100 million people (some got 300$ others got like 700$)
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Also, I make like 300-400$ every 2weeks and the government takes at least 60$ on each check. Then people like me turn around and go to social services to get EBT cards and what not. Then the gov't gives it back in April. This system is so fucking retarded it's unbelievable.
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Not to mention at the time of the stimulus people with a higher income got more money than those with a lower income lol.
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United States43808 Posts
In classical Athens public works were paid for out of the pockets of the rich and there were no direct taxes on the people. The assumption was that if you were rich you could afford these things and if you refused to pay up you were admitting among your peers that you couldn't afford it which was obviously embarassing. Although there was a legal defence, if you were asked to contribute by buying a ship and you felt there was someone richer than you who hadn't been asked you could take him to court and if you proved he was richer then it became his tax burden and not yours.
Bear in mind this was in a direct democracy, the mob got together and decided what they wanted to do and how much they wanted to spend. They then demanded other people pay for it.
To put it another way, it could be worse.
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On December 17 2009 06:35 BuGzlToOnl wrote:Maybe now they will start taxing the rich a higher % and not depend on the middle class as much.
Not as long as the rich get to write the tax code
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EPT![[image loading]](http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/background/numbers/images/Numbers_Figure-1_What-are-fed-govts-sources-of-revenue_3.gif)
