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685327592 t1_iv1w3rz wrote

Reply to comment by 40for60 in [OC] Forbes 2022's Most Philanthropic US Billionaires by row64software

That's just false. They routinely report no income. Even when they do report income it's peanuts compared to their actual wealth.

https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax

In some cases these Billionaires have even received credits meant for the poor:

https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-claimed-tax-credit-for-children-propublica-2021-6

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40for60 t1_iv1wuiw wrote

It certainly can be the case were they will have years of no income after they retire from their jobs like Bezo's has but they eventually cash out some and pay a bunch then. You can make the argument that they can borrow against their wealth but so can any home owner or person who has a 401k, lots of people do this. Anyone can do this, its not illegal. Self dealing on a foundation is illegal and 99.9% of the people who set up foundations don't, this is why Trump is such a scum bag.

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685327592 t1_iv1x6o2 wrote

Most people are not able to avoid taxes that way. We have W2 income that is taxed far more aggressively.

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40for60 t1_iv1yvqi wrote

Most people don't actually pay shit for Federal Income taxes, the top 25% earners carry the US paying nearly 90% of the Federal Income tax and last year 57% of the earners paid zero taxes. So your statement is false because MOST people are not paying shit. And most people are not taxed "aggressively". See chart 6 below. Again you don't know what you are talking about.

So MOST people are not taxed on their income, the US doesn't have a regressive consumption VAT tax and our energy is taxxed at a very low rate.

https://taxfoundation.org/publications/latest-federal-income-tax-data/

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685327592 t1_iv206tu wrote

Most people don't pay much because they don't make much. Your numbers include people in school and retired. Working class people are paying taxes.

PS you still don't seem to understand that top earners and top taxpayers are totally different. The people paying high taxes are W2 earners like athletes and movie stars. People whose money is coming from stocks pay far less or even zero.

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40for60 t1_iv21vq3 wrote

It includes people who have filed a tax return and also this number is skewed against the top earners because "Readers should note the IRS dataset excludes the refundable portion of tax credits such as the earned income tax credit, which means the IRS data overstates the tax rate paid by taxpayers at the bottom.".

I do understand it, better then you do.

The US tax polices are some of the most progressive in the world and although we don't have some of the same exact social programs some of the Europeans have we also don't have the regressive consumption taxes they have to fund them. The income taxes and corporate taxes are mostly in line with Europe.

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SB_Raider t1_iv36pmp wrote

I agree with everything you're saying, but the wealthiest 1000 people don't pay nearly the same % of wealth as the rest of the top 5% of earners.

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40for60 t1_iv37ukp wrote

this is true and it certainly is a problem and why I think the bigger issue is the unearned income tax rate which has made it much easier to accumulate wealth and has allowed Private Equity to become such a big player.

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