President Obama said this the other day: "They should have to defend that unfairness -- explain why somebody who's making $50 million a year in the financial markets should be paying 15 percent on their taxes, when a teacher making $50,000 a year is paying more than that -- paying a higher rate."
Huh? Here's the actual taxes both would pay.
-Taxpayer earning $50K - pays $4,156 in federal income taxes, or 8.3% effective tax rate (not higher than 15% as erroneously bellowed by the illustrious campaigner)
-Taxpayer earning $50M - pays $17,466,318 in federal income taxes or 34.9% effective tax rate (considerably higher than, well, you know)
Remember how taxes work? For the single teacher making a gross income of $50,000 after standard deductions and exceptions, he or she is not paying tax on the full $50,000. The first $8,500 of taxable income is taxed at 10 percent. From there, up to $34,500, the tax rate is 15 percent, then 25 percent over $34,500. So the amount of tax paid as a percentage of income is never the highest bracket your marginal income may land you. Obama is intentionally misleading the public to conduct his class warfare.
Even if the $50M were all long-term capital gains (assets held for one year or longer), the taxes would be $7.5 million, or 15%, nearly twice the effective rate of the teacher.
Guess Obama and his staff need to go back to class. No wonder you can't fix anything.And Mr. President, this is indeed class warfare, regardless of what you say. (Hard to believe anything this guy says anymore).
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