The US Government Hates Success
In the mail yesterday I received a letter from the IRS, regarding the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008. Here is a quote of the first paragraph of this letter :
Dear Taxpayer,
We are please to inform you that the United States Congress passed and President George W. Bush signed into law the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, which provides for economic stimulus payments to be made to over 130 million American households. Under this new law, you may be entitled to a payment of up to $600 ($1,00 if filing a joint return), plus additional amounts for each qualifying child.
That sounds pretty cool, right? An extra $600 isn’t really going to stimulate me to make any purchases, but I’m definitely not going to say no to it. Oh wait, maybe I have to. Here’s a quote from the bottom of the letter :
For taxpayers with adjusted gross income (AGI) of more than $75,000 (or more than $150,000 if married filing jointly), the payment will be reduced or phased out completely).
They might as well have replaced that line with :
If you’re successful at all, you don’t deserve anything. We’d rather give it to individuals that make $3,000 a year and would stimulate our economy by spending the $600 on drug money.
Honestly…what is it with the U.S. government hating on successful people? I understand that those who have a much lower income could use the money to pay off debt or whatever, and $600 isn’t enough to save me; maybe pay off 0.01% of my taxes. Really though, it seems like our government does a swell job at trying to reward those who haven’t accomplished much in their life. Maybe it’s not that, maybe it just seems like the government does a swell job at penalizing wealthy individuals for their success.
It is absolutely absurd how much of a higher percentage the rich pay in taxes. People look down upon the saying “the rich will get richer”. That quote is completely true, and that’s what should happen. If someone has the drive, motivation, and guts to take a risk and start their own company, then more power to them when they succeed. People shouldn’t cry because they chose to go to college and chose to work a 9-5 job in a cubicle for the rest of their life.
The argument against this is “well how many rich people out there are rich from just scamming and lying?” Ok, how many in the middle/lower class scam/cheat/lie/sell drugs just to put food on the table and nothing more? Plenty. There’s rotten fruit on every tree, that doesn’t mean you should chop down the entire tree.
This “economic stimulus” plan is just more icing on the cake. Let’s give money to those making less than $75,000 gross per year, and to the successful let’s just keep taxing the hell out of them. For those of you who are uninformed or are just getting into the world of self-employment, here are what federal tax rates look like :
A person who has a highly successful business ($349,700 income) is paying 25% more in taxes than somebody with an unsuccessful business. The government punishes the successful by taking over 1/3 of their profits. This isn’t even counting state tax, so let’s jack it up even higher.
ABSOLUTELY ABSURD.
Every single time I think about it, I get sick to my stomach. If a person is paying more, they’re naturally going to be paying a lot more in taxes even with a fixed percentage. Someone making $10,000 would pay $1,500 in taxes, while someone making $500,000 would pay $75,000. That’s still 50x as much. But the government likes to take advantage of the successful and jack the metric up to 116x as much, $175,000 in taxes. I would say that’s the biggest negative when entering into the lucrative world of online business.
All in all, this post was one big rant about the government, and if you’re anything like me (pretty much if you’re making money online in the US), you can understand my feelings on the subject.
Let’s go lose some money fellas, we’ll get $600 for it.
Dubai? Bunch of fascists. Don’t go anywhere near there.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1306973,00.html
Why not get down to the real issue that the income tax is contrary to the constitution in the first place. It makes me sick that they tax *anyone’s* income. The rich v. poor thing doesn’t enter into it. We need to eliminate 99% of our current bloated government, because they can’t do anything a) right or b) frugally. Look at social security or the stupid failed war on drugs.
These “money making” blogs are starting to disgust me…The postings are either purposely controversial to drum up more traffic or they are essentially paid advertisements littered with affiliate links to entice newbies to buy crap. Do you think the author really cares about 600.00 measly dollars? Either spit out the details on your money making efforts or STFU with useless little anecdotes, pictures with other internet geeks or useless tips.
Haha, you stole both of my points.
To say that poor people would spend it on drugs is a pretty horrible thing to say especially when theres no facts to back it up. Rich people don’t do drugs? Are you serious?
And the point of this tax break isn’t to stimualte long term growth, its to give it to the people who will spend it the quickest. A valid criticism would be that half the money from the crap people are going to buy will be out of the country really soon anyways, likely to china where everything is made.
The tax code in general is really unfair and stifles ecomonic expansion due to extremely high personal income taxes and corporate income taxes which make it very difficult to compete in the global marketplace. Although there was a really good comment about if you pay 35% of your income in taxes, then file your accountant. That’s very true and I just read a quote by Warren Buffet that basically said he wanted to meet one billionaire that paid a higher percentage of their taxes than their secretary. This is why there should be no income tax or a low flat tax with no income tax deductions…
Wow. Alright. So at this point in my life, I’ve lived at both ends of the spectrum. I’ve lived with those getting the tax breaks, and those in the upper tier. And let me tell you there is more than “some” poor people who are working their asses off just to survive. 99% of them are.
And how are they “wasting” it? You still living under the illusion everyone who is poor is an alcoholic, or hooked on crack?
Most that I have met seriously pay for housing and food. That’s it.
And a lot of the rest of them are “poor” due to mental problems and courtesy of the government(state government in Michigan’s case) have nowhere to go since they shut down all the state run mental institutions to save on…taxes.
I never said everyone who is poor is an alcoholic, or hooked on crack. Here’s the cold hard truth. The poor don’t know how to use their money wisely (hence they are wasting it). Yes they may be using most of their money on food and housing, but I guarantee you if they spent that money wisely for food and housing, they would be saving at least half of what they earn. And no, 99% of them are NOT. The environment the Poor live in breeds poor people. It’s the small things they do that suck their money dry and leave them POOR. There will be those small cases where there is actually someone who knows how to use their money, but generally…. Stick with the POOR, and you will stay POOR.
Now As for the poor with mental problems, hey, I WANT to give money to them, to help them. Err, let’s just say, give money to those who know how to help them.
Are you kidding me? Corps don’t pay their fair share? We have the second highest corporate taxes in the world.
If the government is operating in a surplus, then they are taking too much of your money. Which would you rather have, the government with a surplus or you?
Talk about ignorance. “Constructive and humanitarian purposes” HA. The government isn’t into humanitarian purposes unless it is a natural disaster of some sort. If you honestly think the government uses your money ‘constructively’, you are living in a dream. I’ve spent many years working for the government in different capacities and they waste tons of money needlessly.
If you want your money to be constructive and humanitarian, give it to a charity. Then take a tax write off for it.
The idea that successful business owners are “lucky” and that the success they have was magically bestowed upon them from above is competely absurd.
Going to work everyday and working hard doesn’t mean you will succeed.
All that means is your are showing up. Showing up to work and putting in the hours for the job your are paid to do isn’t hard. It is the abosulute bare minimum you are required to do. There is no reward for this. You don’t get a cookie or a trophy nor do you deserve one.
Now once you get home after 10 hours of grueling work or school are you ready to put in another 4-5 hours trying to improve your situation in life? Are you ready to put the safety and comfort of your steady paycheck on the line for a potentially huge payoff? Are you ready to go long stretches of time without any payoff or financial gain? Are you willing to fail over and over and over again before finding one (possibly fleating) success? Are you willing to have your family and friends question you and your descision and point out your failures?
If you answered “no” to any of these questions then success is going to be VERY hard to come by.
In the U.S you are not guaranteed success, happiness or a bowl full of cherries. You are only guaranteed the right to pursue happiness. A lot of people think otherwise…they are wrong.
Sitting on the couch bitching about the success of others with one hand in a bag of chips and the remote in the other isn’t “pursuing” anything other than the average life of the masses.
If we were to redistribute the wealth of the world so that tomorrow morning every single person on the face of the planet had the same amount of money, 24 hours later the balance of wealth would have already begun to shift back to the same people.
Some people are good managers of money and resources and some people are ignorant, irresponsible and short sighted. Within in a year most people would be back to where they were before. The poor would be poor again and the rich would be rich again.
The government can regulate and legislate all they want to make things “fair” but they can never change human nature.
Meh. Another blog goes the way of Shoemoney/John Chow posting meaningless linkbait and wasting my time..
What is retarded is thinking you need a 34% flat tax rate. The point of a flat rate is that everyone pays _their fair share_, AND you get rid of all the loopholes and deductions that the wealthy use, legally I might add, to reduce their rate. If you make it flat, then everyone would have the same rate, say 10 or 15%, which is pretty much what the lower incomes pay anyway. You take that rate and apply it to the wealthy and remove all the deductions and they effectively pay more in taxes.
It is always easy to tax the rich because they have it, but that isn’t fair either. They work hard as well to get where they are. They just worked hard in a different manner than someone else. Why penalize someone for it?
I really feel bad for you guys in Europe. The real downside in the U.S. is that we are so far away that noone will look and see what such a socialist-like system does to the country and the economies over there. Some want to do the same thing here and drag us down the toilet.
The only ones that benefit in such a system are the ones running it. Business owners are the losers and the employees tend to think that have it great.
Another poor person looking for a handout, I see. :)
WHAT IS EVERYONE TALKING ABOUT??!!
The rich don’t pay the most taxes,..
If your a bussiness owner than the taxes are highly in favor of you, but that’s if you have an corporation or an llc, if you incorporate you will have laws that are highly in favor of you so the government does reward success, the 35% tax are for workers who earn high salaries, like doctors, lawyers, college professors, not business owners, if you own a inc or llc business, your ownly taxed own your taxable income, that means that you can buy a car, and write it off as a business expense if you use it for work, take a trip out of town and write that off too if happen to handle any business out their while your own vatication, you’ll get write off’s for web hosting fees, your computer, rent for your office and all types off stuff, and with the money left over to be taxed you’ll still probably be tax modestly because your viewed as an comapny not an individual, the laws are in favor of the rich, think about it, what’s the tax rate for dividends?? like 15% huh, if you want to increase your knowledge of how the rich pay their taxes start reading some of robert kiyosaki books, i first reccomend reading cash flow quadrant http://www.amazon.com/Cashflow-Quadrant-Guide-Financial-Freedom/dp/0446677477/ref=pd_sim_b_title_3
then when your ready to start your own corporation then go and get this book http://www.amazon.com/Own-Your-Corporation-Companies-Everyone/dp/0446678619/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_1
make sure you go to his main site richdad.com, and find out if their’s any updated versions of those books..
that’s how i know about this tax stuff, it’s because he teaches about financial literacy, turth be told the only reason why you were taxed so damn high is because you filed as an indvidual, and not as an corparte entity!, if you thinking im talking all fluff and no filler than maybe warren buffet can convince you, “Mr Buffett said that he was taxed at 17.7 per cent on the $46 million he made last year, without trying to avoid paying higher taxes, while his secretary, who earned $60,000, was taxed at 30 per cent. ” – Times Online
read the rest of the article here http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/money/tax/article1996735.ece
and everyone stop trippin over $600 bucks, don’t be a scrooge
Peace, 17 y/o entrepreneur and investor
You’re wasting your own time if you expect him to give you a step-by-step on making money online.
Go try it yourself. You’ll be surprised how much you’ll learn with a little trial and error.
The number of people paying over $100,000 in taxes per year is pretty evident in reading the responses. They sit there getting their $1,000 refunds each year and complain that rich people should be taxed MORE. What a farce. Rich people pay for everything in this country through taxes. Poor and middle class just live off the fat of the land. The nice part is you can always move to a better tax situation and there’s lots of places with nice beaches and hot weather that welcome rich guys… :)
One of the most ignorant, disgusting and egoistic posts ever. Unsubscribing.
Either way, same result, not reading the blog…
Cheers to that brother. I have 19 units, only manage 3 myself and besides having to crunch numbers for a day before I go see the accountant, this time of year is pretty good to me and my wife. I learned that four years ago when I started that business. It’s what you keep that counts…
Well… Here in the Netherlands you pay 52% taxes if your income is higher than 100 000 euro / year, which equals about $154 000 right now. I think I’m going to try to become an US citizen, or even better, a Swisz citizen with 2% taxes !
Two words: Liechtenstein Rules.
hey bro,
my manager at CX digital recommended that i check out your blog. you post up great articles, keep it up! and yeah, i am unfortunately exempt from the economic stimulus plan too! and to add insult to injury, corporate taxes are due this week and they’re killer!
Off-Shore Corporations Baby! You pay WAY less tax and get to visit the island once a year for your shareholder’s meeting (or more often if you want)!
A flat tax is the ONLY way to go…plus I don’t want the @)#$ing US government spending all my tax dollars in Iraq and paying the tab for illegal immigrant welfare…
Keep making the big bucks Paul…all the personal attacks against you in this post originate from patheticly jealous bastards who make bunk! I for one am happy for you…19 and on top of the world! I hope to get my affiliate sales volume up to your levels soon!
-G
You sir sound like a pompous a$$hole. You are missing the entire point here. The money is not being given to “reward” anyone. It’s being given to people who otherwise have very little money to spend or none at all.
Alexander- Holy s**t ! The swiss only pay 2% taxes?? Maybe I should move to Switzerland. I could learn to like those taxes and the strong currency! The Dutch pay serious taxes. Are those VAT taxes or income taxes only??
Whats the problem dude? cant you pay that much money or what?
yep… it’s official now. you are a dumbass.
35% is high for the top bracket? check out the tax rates of some European countries (Germany or Sweden pop into my mind as first examples, but the much poorer Eastern-European countries will do just as well), you will be astonished to see rates close or even above 50%.
Taxes in the US are too high but in Europe it’s even worse, you really get punished here if you make too much money.
Indeed. Everything over about 32 000EUR is taxed at 50% in my country, corporate tax is close to 33% and you pay 21% VAT over almost all products you buy. And that’s just the beginning…
I totally agree! Vote Republican!
Anon, look up “straw man argument.”
Looks like a bunch of democrats here.
The income tax is unconstitutional and the Sixteenth Amendment should never have been ratified in the first place.
Now I understand both sides of the story. Yes, it would be nice if we could help the poor, and yes, it is unfair that the rich are taxed ridiculously high brackets. But the fact of the matter is in the United States we live in a capitalistic society. Do you hear the word socialist or communist in there? No.
Our government should be taking measures to ensure that everyone has the chance to raise their income level if they so desire. Higher education needs to be much cheaper. There needs to be jobs for people when they are done with school. The economy needs to be stimulated. Unfortunately, these things are not happening. Instead, they seem to think its better to hand out money that they can’t afford to whomever asks for it.
The government also needs to stop their wastless spending. I heard that over a trillion dollars is wasted on useless causes. That number may not be exactly correct, but it is close (relatively). Stop wasting money. Stop spending it on pointless wars. End the income tax. With 30% more money for Americans to spend each year, the economy would be on fire. Americans spend, thats what they do. With all this extra money where do you think it would go?
Other countries have higher tax brackets than the US because they pay for everything for you. Medical, education, etc etc. Another reason why we don’t want that here.
Wow, is this whining???
You are barley paying anything compared to us living in Sweden,
If one earn above ~$100 000 here it’s you would have to pay 60%.
For the ones earning about $33 333 it’s 30%.
Now, would you like to compare gas prices? :-D
Yeah, jeez, bush really screws over the rich people….. go read something.
Would you like the government to take advantage of the poor too? The government provides a service, we pay for the service. Don’t like it? Tough shit, GTFO of my country or shut up.
If you could be anymore retarded i think you would be autistic.
Don’t worry Marke, We’ll be catching up to you guys soon. $6/ gallon anyone? $120 just to fill up a Hummer at 12 MPG… 50cents per mile! Glad I have a hybrid!
The stimulus package thing is just an advance on any refund you would’ve gotten next year so the impetus of your discontent isn’t as bad you made it out to be, though your main point is clear. What’s funny is that back in the day when Eisenhower put a 79% tax (or something like), it only applied to ONE person… Rockefeller, how’s that for hating on success?
your right the poor should die or something because htey do not pay taxes. fuck them i am in the same boat having to pay for their drugs. the us hates successful people like me. i laugh at all the people going to college and trying to get jobs they are a waste to society. they are morons for not figuring out they can make more at home with advertisements.
Now you know why all the successful affiliate marketers like Ron Paul.
Welcome to the Republican Party :)
Yes… the rich do pay most of the taxes….
In fact over 96% of our taxes is paid by the top 50% of our wage earners. Over half of our taxes are paid by the top 5% alone.
So yes, the rich pay an overwhelming majority of the taxes that keep America running.
I never said Dubai was a great place to do drugs, I simply pointed them out as that is where Haliburton (the company with all the juicy contracts in Iraq) moved.
I think spending $42 million to inform taxpayers about the tax rebate is a waste of money, and I doubt the rebate will have much positive impact on the economy. However, the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 does provide one tax incentive that will help the economy – check out this [link title=”Section 179 calculator”]http://www.crestcapital.com/tax_deduction_calculator[/link] that shows various tax savings on various equipment costs purchased by samll business. Small business is the lifeblood of the economy and Section 179 will be a real boost.
I completely agree with you. however, if you’re a business owner and you’re making more than $75,000 then your tax planner sucks and deserves to get fired.
You should be sheltering your income through corporations and legitimate tax deductions like real estate.
Rich people don’t pay taxes. Check out John Chow’s post on the topic. It was probably the only useful post he’s had in the past 6 months!
Stop acting like a whiny poor person ;-P
(i’m being facetious in this last line – don’t lets get our undies in a twist.)
I’m Waiting for my check like everyone else still gotta file for my taxes ~Nick~
Nice response fo sho.
My favorite comment on this blog to date.
Yeah sounds like it’d suck to live in Europe.