Tax Time

Dear Andrew,

First stop, www.taxfoundation.org/files/ff104.pdf, this link should open a .pdf file. You'll love it. The conclusion is that the top one percent of 'tax returns' pay 39 percent of "all" income tax.

That document was prepared using an IRS bulletin which can also be downloaded at: IRS Bulletin Article, 2005.

This bulletin very well supports the Tax Foundation conclusion despite some very small differences in the numbers.

So why don't I stop with the Tax Foundation conclusions which are based on the bulletin?

It's a bulletin, not a report.

If I'm watching some Cable TV movie, sometimes a weather bulletin flashes across the bottom of the screen. That bulletin could say tornado warning for all of Georgia.

The next day, should I tell people, "Tornadoes hit all of Georgia yesterday?"

The IRS bulletin has many "mistakes.'

Here are a couple.

Over 43 million tax returns with income, (AGI), were included in the bulletin. But, these returns paid no taxes. The bulletin does not adjust for this. That's about a 30 percent error in the number of returns with taxable income. Where in the 100% of all returns do those 'tax free' returns fit and how do they skew results?

[The tax free returns are in the bottom quintile for the purpose of reporting. In other words, 43 million returns are counted that pay no tax as being among the "other" 99 percent of of 'taxpayers.'

Now, it's very important to look at how the IRS defines the top one percent of "taxpayers" in the bulletin. There are no footnotes containing that information.

That leaves sorting through raw data. Not much fun.

But, there is an IRS Data Release called, The 400 Individual Income Tax Returns Reporting the Highest Adjusted Gross Incomes Each Year, 1992-2000. [Actually, there are more recent studies. I'll get to those next.]

Those 400 tax returns [tax forms not taxpayers] reported taxable income in 2000 of over $60 billion dollars, an average of $150 million each. About 1.32% of all taxable income.

What was the tax burden for the "top one percent of income?" Actual.

$15,507,223,000. Rounded to the nearest $1,000.

That would be 1.58 percent of all "income taxes" as defined by the IRS, the definition as used in all IRS reporting , as used on tax forms.

Since that "statistical study," [Yes, a statistical study prepared by specific authors, "Prepared under the direction of Michael Parisi and Michael Strudler, economists in the Individual Statistics Branch."] the definition of "income tax" has been changed to exclude certain taxes and certain credits.

So direct comparison of the study from 2003 and bulletins issued after the definitional changes are not possible.

If the Tax Foundation were correct in saying that 1 percent of all taxpayers pay 39 percent of all incometaxes, then why doesn't this group pay 3.9 percent or more of all taxes since they get 1.32 percent of all income?

All Politicians Lie

“All politicians lie!”

That’s just not true. However, the truth does get trampled often by political hacks. But if we look, we can find the truthful politician right after an election. He or she is the one who didn’t get elected.

Speaking truth to the public isn’t the easiest path to political success. Saying things that people want to hear will win elections.

The best example of this comes in our email boxes.

Yesterday, Ann Coulter sent me her latest column on John McCain. I wasn’t as interested in John as I was in the ads neatly tucked into her column and the margins of her email.

I really, really want to know more about how I can gain strength without exercise. I’ve always known that going to a gym was unhealthy. Now, I can be grateful to Ann Coulter for providing with this shocking research that “the fitness industry doesn’t want me to know.”

But before I could cancel that worthless gym membership, Ann had already confirmed that I was paying $50,000 too much in taxes!

“What would you do with an extra $50,000 dollars?” and “Keep your money in your pocket where it belongs!” Those two sentences dumped John McCain, Hillary Clinton, and George Washington into the garbage.

Not only has the ‘fitness industry’ been lying to me, the government has $10,000, $20,000, or even $50,000 dollars of my extra money!

I don’t know where Ann Coulter gets the extra time to talk about politics given the huge burden she must carry providing me with the truth about exercise and taxes!

Now that we know where to buy our snake oil, let’s get back to the truth by using that painful subject of taxes.

Jonathan Hoenig of Fox News sent me a video about the unfairness of the tax burden. According to Jonathan, the richest one percent of taxpayers pay 39 percent of income taxes!

How dare we treat our rich people like this! How dare we!

And, who is responsible for this abuse? According to dear Jonathan, it’s those Wal-Mart workers making ten bucks an hour!

I thought it was very clever for Jonathan and Fox News to blame Wal-Mart workers for the horrible burdens of being super-duper rich.

And since I just saved myself the annual cost of belonging to a gym, signed up with an online CPA service to get my extra $50,000 back from the government, I must be in that richest one percent group, right?

Wrong! And, Fox News is wrong about the unfair burdens of being in the richest one percent of Americans.

The most likely source of the Fox News report is the Tax Foundation. The Tax Foundation, a far right organization, should have gotten its raw data from the IRS.

Now the IRS puts out some really good statistics and publications, but I know the Tax Foundation and Fox News didn’t bother with a statistical analysis or even look at the existing online reports.

The top one percent of Americans with taxable returns had roughly 25 percent of all taxable income in 2005 and paid a tax rate of about 23 percent. If that doesn’t shock anyone, the top 400 taxpayers in 2000, earned an average income of over $170 million dollars each before taxes.

I’d like to be in that very exclusive group, wouldn’t you? What would you do with an income of $170 million before taxes?

Judging by Ann Coulter, Fox News, and their commercial sponsors, we’d cancel our gym memberships, hire an online accountant, and complain about $10 per hour Wal-Mart workers.

Ah, the Republican version of the American dream, to be lazy, ignorant, and rude to people who are doing nothing but working to make a living.

Stealing the candy from babies

For a long time, our state has been stealing the 'candy' from our babies by taking education dollars. Those education dollars, once used only for books, teachers, and learning have been stolen by GOP and Democratic leaders for business tax breaks. By business tax breaks, I mean using taxpayer money for various economic development plans.

New sewers.

New shopping centers like in Kelo vs. New London.

Roads.

Tax cuts for struggling businesses.

Incentives for international companies to not move to Hong Kong.

Finally, a court decision that stops this insanity!

A partial story appears here in the AJC.

Another story on Hall County, Georgia appears here.

Isn't it about damn time our property tax dollars are used for education as required by the state constitution?

What the Hell is wrong with conservative Republicans? I know the GOP is used to lying, stealing, and corruption. But, stealing money from our babies and giving that money away?

God Damn them to Hell for an eternity.

Letter in Gainesville Times

Only a man is good enough in GOP's eyes
I couldn't help but laugh at Paul Stanley's column. In Stanley's words, the president he is looking for can only be a man. Nine times Stanley refers to the perfect president as a "he."

Why doesn't Stanley, as chairman of the Hall County GOP, just go ahead and say, "Women have no place in the White House?" I could have tolerated a bold statement that only a white male, evangelical, reformed alcoholic frat boy could be president. After all, we've had one of those for seven years.

But Stanley is only looking for a male president. And, as Stanley says, "He will understand the power of incentives and disincentives."

In the GOP world, not only are woman consigned to the kitchen and the bedroom, women can't understand reward and punishment. That must be why women make so little money and can't hold executive jobs, work as judges or as teachers.

Gender aside, the local GOP leader is also looking for that male president who will not use taxes "to punish." A male president would know that, "taxes are not meant to punish."

When our economic enemies illegally "dump" products into our economy, how will Stanley's male president stop our enemies? Would Stanley's man invade another Third World country? Or would our country be better off using punitive tariffs?

When oil companies gouge the consumer at the pump, our country should punish Big Oil with windfall taxes? Or during war, if a company steals from the war effort, why not punish the Halliburtons with an excess profit tax? But like Stanley seems to be saying, taxes are not meant to punish and governments aren't supposed to nurture good citizenship.

I hope Stanley never finds that male president who use "free market mechanisms" to do the things only men should do. My country can't afford another GOP style "real man" running the country.

Michael Parker
Flowery Branch

Update on Voter Fraud in the Primary

I contacted the Secretary of State's office with my allegations.

An investigator emailed me within 24 hours.

Later, he interviewed me by phone.

He said the facts would be taken to "the powers that be."

If an investigation were indicated, it would be very easy to do. And, I would be notified.

Is it cold in Hell yet?