QUOTES OF THE DAY > If Rich People Don't Buy Yachts, Working People Suffer?

No it is not less!! It is still 20%! Twenty percent of a dollar and 20% of ten dollars is the same thing 20%. Here you say that 20% of a middle class paycheck is greater than 20% of a millionaire's paycheck. You want the "rich" to pay more even in a flat tax system the "rich" would pay more because they earn more. But the current tax system says that if you have a pie and everyone gets a single piece of pie, we cut it into five parts but if your pie is bigger to be fair we have to cut it into ten parts,
Did you even look at the FairTax? Your statement; "We cannot have a percentage like the Fair Tax, simply because it's NOT FAIR!", tells me you did not. That you do not know what the FairTax is!
"The FairTax proposal is a comprehensive plan to replace federal income and payroll taxes, including personal, gift, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security/Medicare, self-employment, and corporate taxes. The FairTax proposal integrates such features as a progressive national retail sales tax, dollar-for-dollar revenue replacement, and a rebate to ensure that no American pays such federal taxes up to the poverty level. Included in the FairTax Plan is the repeal of the 16th Amendment to the Constitution. The FairTax allows Americans to keep 100 percent of their paychecks (minus any state income taxes), ends corporate taxes and compliance costs hidden in the retail cost of goods and services, and fully funds the federal government while fulfilling the promise of Social Security and Medicare.

Americans take home their whole paychecks.
Not only do more Americans have jobs, but they also take home 100 percent of their paychecks (except where state income taxes apply). No federal income taxes or payroll taxes are withheld from paychecks, pensions, or Social Security checks. " (FairTax.org)

One would think that before you say something is not fair that you have an idea what it IS!

First of all you betray yourself when you say; "The wealthier person pays more, but it doesn't cause him a hardship." Thereby proving what many say that the intent of those calling for more tax on the successful are seeking to punish them because they are successful. Somehow thinking that the success they have is unfair! Said position is also supported by the sentence following. Moreover to claim 20% is not a hardship is facetious to begin with, taxes are not supposed to BE a hardship. Nor does this conversion from percentage to hard numbers change the fact that 20% to each is 20% to both and by definition "fair".

How does one quantify a better job? The job in the mail room & the job in the board room require a completely different set of skills. So that even a "satisfactory" job by the occupant of the respective job would likely not be "satisfactory" were they to switch positions.

You clearly do not know WHAT the FairTax (sic) is let alone understand it. The FairTax (sic) has nothing to do with a person's income. In trying to refute something you know nothing about you again cite "fairness" how can you possibly assert that being charged precisely the same rate is unfair? You say; "The people who have been successful should pay it forward and do something for someone else." Yet they do just that. The successful are the greatest contributors to groups that aid the needful. They also set up all kinds of foundations to assist others as well. What part of the FairTax (sic) allows a worker to keep 100% of the salary they work for is bad for anyone?

taXes
................................ 2010 ..... 2009 ..... 2008
(millions of dollars)
Income taxes ........................ $ 21,561 $ 15,119 $ 36,530
Effective income tax rate ........... 45% ....... 47% .... 46%
Sales-based taxes .................... 28,547 25,936 34,508
All other taxes and duties ........... 39,127 37,571 45,223
Total ................................ $ 89,235 $ 78,626 $116,261

2010
Income, sales-based and all other taxes and duties totaled $89 .2 billion in 2010, an increase of $10 .6 billion or 13 percent from 2009 .
Income tax expense, both current and deferred, was $21 .6 billion,
$6 .4 billion higher than 2009, reflecting higher pre-tax income in 2010 .
A lower share of pre-tax income from the Upstream segment in 2010 decreased the effective tax rate to 45 percent compared to 47 percent in 2009 . Sales-based and all other taxes and duties of $67 .7 billion in 2010 increased $4 .2 billion, reflecting higher prices

Even a cursory look shows that there was an aberration in 2009. Considering that 2006 was $27.9 million, 2007 - $29.8 million, 2008 - $36.5 million, 2009 - $15.1, and 2101 - $21.5 million. Clearly the high taxes in 2008 and the significant reduction in revenue in 2009 were the governing factors in payments. Besides a company like this does not report their taxes like the rest of us, they report - and pay - quarterly. Which can have a huge impact on the end of year figures.
(http://phx.corporate-ir.net/...

Odds are the same holds true of GE!

It is not so much what I did, as it is what sodahead did with it after I sent it through. Take another look and see if that is easier on the eye.

You ask for evidence and yet when evidence is presented your response is a simple "That is certainly not true."
You are making some serious assumptions! Extracting of oil does not provide the bulk of Exxon's profits. Even so any tax paid to a foreign government would be covered under all other taxes & duties. Taxes to Foreign governments is treated as a business expense in the US meaning that the line for income taxes is in fact US income taxes! No company could stay in business paying 85% of its profit to a government in any kind of a payment. This statement alone shows a measure of naivete in business economics. Profit is what is left over after you pay ALL your bills. Tax payments ARE part of those bills.
Refunds from the IRS do not mean that you paid no taxes, only that you paid more taxes then you were required to. Exxon would have been making quarterly payments in 2009 to the IRS based on the data reported on its 2008 return ($83.4 million) but by the end of 2009 they only had a tax liability on $34.8 million, 42% of the previous year, surely they paid too much during the year. Its the same reason you get a "refund" from the IRS. All the IRS is doing is returning the amount you "overpaid" (in essence an interest free loan to the Government.

Take a look in the IRS data book under corporation taxes you can find "SOI Tax Stats - Table 7: Corporation Returns With Net Income" This table has a specific entry that covers the oil industry and show just how much is paid by the industry in foreign taxes.

I didn't blow you off, I edited the offending post and so stated.
No I did not say; "Income, sales-based and all other taxes and duties totaled $89 .2 billion in 2010...". But the total of income taxes ($21.5 billion), sales based taxes ($28.5 billion), all other taxes & duties ($39.1 billion) was $89 billion. The $89 billion is the over all tax bill, your assumption that this is the profit means that you are doing no research on your own. Merely adjusting reality in order to make you position BE correct when it is not!

Can I claim that your getting a tax REFUND, of overpaid taxes, and buying a Toyota should bother everyone in the US? Because that is what you are saying. You are incapable of supporting that the company paid NO taxes to the US in the year in question. Companies are REQUIRED to pay their taxes every three months not, like the rest of us, annually. When you pay too much you are legally bound to get that money returned to you. You can not have returned more than you paid in, unless you are one of the favored few that are given other people's payments in the form of EITC!

So Exxon likely paid $21.5 billion to the US, likely because there is a rate attached. The $15 billion that you go on & on about is part of the $39.1 "other" taxes. In 2010 Exxon has a Gross Profit (before costs of business) of $107,827 millions. Cost of business reduces that to $52,959 millions. Income tax of $21,561 millions leaves Exxon with a Net Profit of $30,460 millions. From this Exxon paid $2,188 millions to the shareholders, you know Joe Citizen!