wooden_ships

Consider our defense budget is more than the next 8 largest budgets in the world COMBINED! And now trump is increasing it.

It’s not the spending, it’s the ways we spend.

EyeSawYou

Lol you just proved my point, its not a tax revenue issue its a spending issue.

Screamin Scott Loc: Marshfield Wi, Baltimore Md, now Dallas Ga

What you don't show is that there were many deductions that lowered the tax rates back then. Few, if any, actually paid those rates. With the elimination of all these deductions (like the $10k cap on property tax deductions, more revenue should flow into Federal coffers now.

Screamin Scott Loc: Marshfield Wi, Baltimore Md, now Dallas Ga

Compare that budget to SSA/Medicare/Medicaid expenditures and the Defense budget isn't as big as you think....

https://www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-budget-101/spending/

boberic Loc: Quiet Corner, Connecticut. Ex long Islander

Flat tax!! VAT is a bit of a scam

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

I don't know if there's any truth to this but I can say that there are a lot of people that work for Amazon, and they all earn a paycheck, pay income taxes, pay SSI, pay work comp., and with that paycheck they buy goods that they pay taxes on, they have property that they pay taxes on, they drive cars that they pay taxes on, they employ other people to do things for them with their money and all those people pay taxes (except for the illegal immigrants that they might hire) etc. Then there are all the delivery services that they pay, large and small. There's all the vehicles that they hire or own and those take revenue and taxes. So even if Amazon didn't pay a dime in taxes, a large company like this gives people opportunities that help them make their dreams come true.

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

Loopholes and more loopholes. Congress is so busy trying to belittle each other that they do nothing. They let the big companies, and they all take money from big corporations, write the tax laws that favor them and screw us.

boberic Loc: Quiet Corner, Connecticut. Ex long Islander

Things are VERY different now. With the advent of computers it no longer matters where a person lives. If you drive taxes to those levels( 90% for the highest earners) all you will do is drive those highest earners to tax haven countries. So instead of those highest earners paying 50% of the taxes thyat they now pay. Tax revenue collected mwill actually go down as opposed to up. Not only that but nobody actuallypais 90%. As a result of tax shelters they paid a whole lot less. A highest bracket of 90% would be a disaster for the economy.

travelwp Loc: New Jersey

Amazon has created over 500,000 jobs. Amazon employees pay taxes. How many jobs were created by two teachers?

Nothing is fair.

Cykdelic Loc: Now outside of Chiraq & Santa Fe, NM

Learn how to understand taxes, art.

First, Corporate taxes are clearly distinct from individuals (starting with accrual v. Cash basis).

To simplify, Amazon, as a corporation, gets carryforwards based on losses.....so,if a corporation loses, say, 10 million dollars one year, they get to carry this forward to hopefully more profitable years (and decrease taxable income in those forward years). They also get tax credits for investments in R&D and stock-based employee compensation, both of which Amazon take advantage of.

The point is to treat businesses as ongoing entities and make sure they are treated as such and not as 12-month entities. The result is that you will have to try real hard to find a for-profit company that doesn’t pay federal taxes over a multiple-year period (looking at rolling 5 year periods is the best way to measure a company’s taxes).

Second, the wonderful years of high taxes you refer to weren’t!

Your confusion of marginal rates with effective rates is bad analysis....all that matters is effective rates, and the “rich” never came close to 94%. In the days of such rates the IRS write offs were huge, and many went away with the Reagan reforms. Since then almost every tax reform had accompanying losses of write offs. The result is that the current write offs are minimal.

What does this mean for effective (ie. REAL tax rates)? It means that the EFFECTIVE rates paid by today’s “rich”, with a marginal tax rate of 37% is only slightly lower than that of the 1950s (see chart, slow)

The point is that you may prefer the effectiveness tax rate be higher, but please......do not mislead by pretending the REAL rates were ever close to 91, or 94, or 65, or any other make believe percent.

Cykdelic Loc: Now outside of Chiraq & Santa Fe, NM

Except it screws retirees.

Cykdelic Loc: Now outside of Chiraq & Santa Fe, NM

The new tax plan is fantastic for small businesses.....get up to date, Tex. Perhaps you’re co fusing it with Aussieland?

Right now a small business basically gets the first 20% tax free if they have taxable income that's under $157,500 if single or $315,000 if they're married.

Cykdelic Loc: Now outside of Chiraq & Santa Fe, NM

Well, defense is one of the few expenses mandated in the Comstitution, it’s historically at a relatively sane portion of GDP.

Now, SS and the Medí system are another story.

Angmo

It’s rather simple. Amazon studied tax law and didn’t do anything wrong. If folks would study and do analysis of their taxes and the law, I’d be surprised if they didn’t knock off $3,000-$7,000 off their taxes.

Filling out an EZ form is not the right thing. Study the details and lower your taxes.

If you take the standard car mileage deduction you’re only getting about half of what you should be getting as a deduction. The standard deduction is what the IRS dangles in front of you. Take it and you lose.

Put in the effort and study. Or hire someone to do that for you. Trump has done some great things for small business. do your part and read up. Save big time.

Don’t whine because Amazon put in the effort to read the tax code. Follow their example by reading for yourself.

BTW, your local tax guy typically won’t know. Hire someone who does. It’s worth it.

wooden_ships

And you missed the bigger issue. I said it was not a revenue issue by misspending our taxes. More money for defense at the expense of social security and Medicare - programs we pay to have.