Fiscal Cliff Deal's Income Tax Hike Hits Less Than 1 Percent Of Taxpayers
Source: huffingtonpost
Forget the 1 percent, the fiscal cliff deal is all about the .7 percent. That's the slice of Americans who will be affected by Congress' new definition of "wealthy," according to a new analysis from the Tax Policy Center, a nonprofit tax research group.
The centerpiece of the deal passed by Congress on Tuesday includes higher income taxes on individuals who make at least $400,000 and couples who make more than $450,000. The tax rate for those groups jumps to 39.6 percent from the current 35 percent.
Under earlier proposals from President Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats, the wealth limit for the top tax bracket was $250,000. Under that lower income threshold, up to 1.3 percent of taxpayers would have been affected by the higher rate, according to tax researcher Joseph Rosenberg at the Tax Policy Center.
Either way, the tax rate increase is more symbolic than anything else -- economists and analysts say the wealth limit does little to fix budget woes. "It's not going to make a dent in the deficit and it's the least painful of the tax increases that hits upper income," Chris Low, chief economist of financial services company FTN Financial, told The Huffington Post.
Critics also say the new definition betrays President Obama's pledge to tax the wealthy. "Obama may think his conciliatory approach has helped avoid economic chaos. Instead, he is courting it," wrote New York Magazine political commentator Jonathan Chait last week.
The newly defined wealth limit also applies to tax hikes on capital gains and investment income, which will now be taxed at a 20 percent rate, up from 15 percent for those earning $400,000 or more. Even that represents a shift from Obama's original tax plan that called for rates as high as 23.8 percent on capital gains for the wealthiest Americans.
While all the talk is about the new tax-rate increases on the wealthy, the reality of the fiscal cliff deal is that taxes are going up for most working Americans via the expiration of the payroll tax holiday. Seventy-seven percent of American households will face higher taxes under the deal, mostly because of the rise in the payroll tax to 6.2 percent from 4.2 percent.
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/02/fiscal-cliff-income-tax-hike-taxpayers_n_2389743.html
Again I will point out the Rhetoric versus the resulted action...
From the Article: Seventy-seven percent of American households will face higher taxes under the deal, mostly because of the rise in the payroll tax to 6.2 percent from 4.2 percent.
Wow tell me again how Obama got a great deal for us? Ate the thugs lunch etc..
In this climate I think the other side made out like bandits... Four years and two campaigns of rhetoric that the rich don't pay their fair share a massive movement in OWS and this is the deal we get????
and some on this forum applaud it?
We got screwed and what next all the talk will be on cuts because of course the right will say things like, we compromised we raised taxes, What do you mean you want more tax increases? There he goes again with those tax increases that "only affect the rich" giggle right...
Unless the President and our members of congress start pressing for truly progressive reforms, we are all going to get screwed over even worse in the next debacle....
VAT
Bank/Wall St transaction taxes
Wealth luxury taxes
Firearms ownership annual Taxes
SS Cap lifting
Why won't he talk about them???
Nobody is talking about real reforms...
and for those that will, are they going to get slapped with a Professional left label again?
This is it boys and girls, if we don't get these revenue streams now we never will....
dkf
(37,305 posts)It never amounted to more than a drop in the bucket but everyone loved the rhetoric.
$600b in new revenue over 10 years is $60b a year. Drop in the bucket compared to a trillion dollar deficit and $16 trillion dollar debt.
I kind of think the public was a bit bamboozled on this one but its not like it wasn't discussed a long time ago.
iamthebandfanman
(8,127 posts)I thought we believed in funding social security around here?
people are outraged about the payroll tax, but not the fact we caved on raising taxes on those making over 16K a month in favor of those making over 33K a month.
humbled_opinion
(4,423 posts)the professional left... Sometimes I think people have lost their principles.
Amonester
(11,541 posts)A worldwide depression that would have made the 2008 recession look like nothing. A worldwide depression that would have cancelled all the jobs recovered since then and more. Europe is already on the brink. Asia is a relatively new manufacturer, but without Europe & North America to buy their stuff it would be very hard for them to continue without following through in a depressed environment.
No, the deal was not as much as it should have been, but it was a start. And the stupid power-hungry tearorists were told to STFU by more or less half of the party they infiltrated to take over.
These revenue streams you talk about, they're not coming with that bill, of course. The job is not done yet. And the tearorists threaten to make that job even harder in two months.
The job is far from over.
humbled_opinion
(4,423 posts)TALK about alternative progressive revenue streams.... You tell anyone that is? Why did Obama buy into the chained CPI idea instead of talking about a progressive revenue stream????
Amonester
(11,541 posts)Is it a progressive revenue plan? You tell anyone that is?