Conservative Talking Points views our nation's progressive taxation policy as punishment for performance. If our nation lived within the restraints of the US Constitution, reigned in spending, enforced our borders and ended the ever-growing entitlement mentality, we could completely eliminate income taxes.
If Obama Gets His Way, The 2013 Tax Rates Will Skyrocket (Source: WSJ – July 2012)
· The top income tax rate will rise from 35% to 39.6%
· Income/Payroll tax rates will rise anywhere from 37.4% to 52.2%
· Capital Gains will nearly double from 15% to 28%
· Dividends will hurt the elderly investors by rising from 15% to an astounding rate of 39.6%
· Estate taxes will steal from the dead at a top rate of 55%
Who Pays Income Taxes (Source: National Tax Payers Union - 2006 Tax Year)
· The top 1% of income earners (<$388K) pay about 39% of all income taxes.
· The top 5% of income earners (<$153K) pay about 60% of all income taxes.
· The top 10% of income earners (<$108K) pay about 70% of all income taxes.
· The top 25% of income earners (<$64K) pay about 86% of all income taxes.
· The top 50% of income earners (<$32K) pay about 97% of all income taxes.
· The Bottom 50% of income earners pays less than 3% of all federal income taxes.
How It Started (Source: Treasury.gov)
· Civil War erupted, the Congress passed the Revenue Act of 1861, which imposed a tax on personal incomes higher than $800 a year at 3%.
· By 1913, 36 States had ratified the 16th Amendment which levied an income tax law with rates ranging from 1% to 7% for taxpayers with income in excess of $500,000. The beginning of progressive taxation.
· The 1916 Act raised the lowest tax rate from 1% to 2% and raised the top rate to 15% on taxpayers making over $1.5 million.
· By the end of World War II reductions in exemption levels meant that taxpayers with taxable incomes of only $500 faced a bottom tax rate of 23%, while taxpayers with incomes exceeding $1,000,000 were hit with a top rate of 94%.