Taxes?

[quasarvs]

So what does everyone think of them this year? :reddevil: :toetap:
All you employed and self-employed etc. etc.?


(I guess you can see what I think. :roflol:)

[ryoder]

Taxes suck.
The government uses the tax system to redistribute wealth. Let's be honest about this one.
Its not there to pay for the military or the roads, its really to take from the rich and give to the poor.
The problem is that the middle class and the upper middle class gets caught in the net.
Lets say you live up north and pay 10% in state and local and 35% in federal plus 6% in sales tax and pay property taxes and all kinds of fees. You actually work for about 6 months per year with no pay ata all. thats right 6 months of your work goes to the government which wastes all that money on BS.
Thats what I think and there are plenty of people like me around.

The feds charged about 3% in income tax back in the day and now it tops out at 39.6%. Back in the 60s it topped out in excess of 75%. That was crazy and JFK fixed that.

[sanantone]

My opinion is that the tax system is overly burdensome for salary earners. Those who are hit the hardest are high income earners. Those who pay the least taxes in proportion to their wealth are the wealthy who depend on investments.

[scorched]

Taxes are very painful.
And I think that when people complain about the military spending too much, they need only see that as % of total spend, its actually much lower than ever before.
Topped % wise by welfare programs pretty significantly

I believe in the need for certain aspects of taxes, but it has gone over the top now.

[LaterBloomer]

Funny. Years ago I decided to go to a financial advisor. He kept talking about ways to decrease tax payments. (Don't get me wrong. I am NOT rich. While my salary might put me in the upper-middle class in most of the country, in NOVA I'm lower-middle, or upper lower.) I said, "I'm a Democrat. Taxes are the price I pay to live in this country. I'm not going to try to avoid paying my fair share." He was gob-smacked. Then he stuttered, "I'm a Democrat, too, but we're talking about taxes." At that point, I stood up, thanked him, and left. I just wanted to make sure my money was invested in the best way possible to earn more money, not to avoid supporting my country. I served in the military. I vote. I pay taxes. It's who I am.

[bluebooger]

Taxes suck.
The government uses the tax system to redistribute wealth. Let's be honest about this one.
Its not there to pay for the military or the roads, its really to take from the rich and give to the poor.

what a load of crap

[mrs.b]

Tax rates are representative of how we've lived for a number of years. It makes me a little nauseas to see how much of my and our workers' paychecks go to government that will mismanage funds, but we let it get that way and are reaping the results.

We've let our infrastructure deteriorate until it is now one of the most outdated and poorly functioning among industrialized nations because we continually voted down projects that, at the time, would have been costly but are now astronomical in budget to address, and still must be fixed. If our tax monies were making much of a dent in needed repairs and upgrades, I might not have such an issue with roughly 40% of my paycheck disappearing before I ever see it, because I would someday reap other benefits such as increased efficiency.

The growing gap between rich and poor in the country tells me we are losing our middle class at a scary rate, and that is largely due to unemployment levels, downgraded workers, and the number of people who have left the job market for lack of option. That is not something that, I believe, needs overwhelming welfare programs to repair, but if we can stop wasting money on pointless projects that simply waste funds needed elsewhere (Solyndra we all know about, but First Solar took three times as much and is in its death bed), we might be able to pay some of our nation's debts, fund programs that aren't failures before they get started, and look toward greener technologies that are viable and not just driven by generous political donors, that might add new jobs, increase productivity in others, and let the whole issue sort itself out.

Don't get me started on the educational system for our children; another thread should shed enough light on my opinion of the value in that.

We've all accepted the tax system and pushed for it by voting the way we do, electing the people that cannot figure out how to make reasonable purchasing programs so they are not buying overpriced and sub-quality materials, or waiting until the 11th hour to seriously contemplate development of a budget, and so on. I look at taxes each paycheck like I would look at payment for stupid, impulse buys; I might have thought it was a good idea two or four years ago, but I did not think it through, got nothing out of it, but still have to pay for it. If only we could vote with as much consideration and vehemence as we waste complaining, we might see improvement.

Edit: I work for a global organization, in one of their smaller facilities doing HR, Ops support, accounting and reporting, but hubby and I are slowly (sloooowly) developing plans to eventually become self-employed.

P.P.S: My use of "we" throughout is collective for the voting population, not in the royal sense. My votes on much of these issues go towards solutions that might spend a bit now, but are proven by historical testing to be permanent solutions, and are often in the minority so never come to fruition. We (as in my tiny family) do our best with the system in place, and make decisions - such as pulling our child out of the public school system - when collective decisions interfere with our family's well-being.

[merolpn]

I live in Connecticut and I am used to ridiculous taxes. I put it out of my mind most of the time. Honestly, I don't think about the size of the universe for the same reason. I am not going to figure out either of the solutions. There are not enough people that think like me in this state, many, but not enough. Everyone cries about how much taxes and fees are here but nobody wants their little cookie from the government to stop getting to them. They re-elect the same idiots year after year. There used to be alot of defense industry in the state and many people were able to make a respectable living by working for companies such as Pratt&Whitney, Sikorsky, Kaman, Colt Firearms, Sturm-Ruger and the thousands of machine shops that supported these larger companies. For many years there was always plenty of money to go around and nobody complained about the taxes. All of these companies were union shops and the unions usually support Democrats because of their pro-union stance. So the workers voted for Democrats because they were for the "working man" (thats why my union grandfathers both voted Democrat every time) but these same Democrats favored slashing the defense budgets. When the defense budgets got slashed and these jobs got cut, the "working man" felt he needed the union even more and the vicious cycle was repeated and repeated and now we are where we are today.

We have high taxes, many obstructions to starting a business and heavy regulations for those that do.

Personally, I don't think it is ever going to change here and I am seriously considering leaving the Northeast. I have alot to think about. My father and stepmother want to leave the state in a few years when my dad retires. The taxes on their house are almost $700/month and they will not be able to sustain paying for them on a retirement income. It is a really sad situation here. But hey, we have good schools in the state so we will educate our kids and they will move to where they get to keep more of the money they do earn. Everyone will benefit off of Connecticut's mistakes.

[ryoder]

Come to Florida. We are a low tax state because we have no income tax and property taxes are also low right now. If you buy a home you get a 50k exemption so your property taxes might be 2K per year for a nice house. If we could only get rid of federal income tax.

[LaterBloomer]

Now, if someone argued (like Mrs. B) that the government could better (read: more efficiently) use our taxes, I'd say, "Amen." Like Merolpn, I don't stress over it. I carefully vote for officials (particularly at the local level), and then let it go. And Mrs. B., I wish your and your husband the best of luck starting a new business. I really admire people who take on challenges like that.