<story><title>Panama: The Hidden Trillions</title><url>http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/10/27/panama-the-hidden-trillions/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>twblalock</author><text>This is what you get when the majority of tax revenue comes from a small tax base. For example, according to Pew Research (&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.pewresearch.org&amp;#x2F;fact-tank&amp;#x2F;2016&amp;#x2F;04&amp;#x2F;13&amp;#x2F;high-income-americans-pay-most-income-taxes-but-enough-to-be-fair&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.pewresearch.org&amp;#x2F;fact-tank&amp;#x2F;2016&amp;#x2F;04&amp;#x2F;13&amp;#x2F;high-income-...&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; In 2014, people with adjusted gross income, or AGI, above $250,000 paid just over half (51.6%) of all individual income taxes, though they accounted for only 2.7% of all returns filed, according to our analysis of preliminary IRS data. Their average tax rate (total taxes paid divided by cumulative AGI) was 25.7%. By contrast, people with incomes of less than $50,000 accounted for 62.3% of all individual returns filed, but they paid just 5.7% of total taxes. Their average tax rate was 4.3%.&lt;p&gt;In the state of California, &amp;quot;New figures from the Franchise Tax Board show that the wealthiest 1% of Californians paid 50.6% of the state income tax in 2012 — up from 41.1% in 2011. It means that of nearly 15 million tax returns, about 150,000 generated more than half the revenue.&amp;quot; (&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.latimes.com&amp;#x2F;local&amp;#x2F;la-me-cap-taxes-20140505-column.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.latimes.com&amp;#x2F;local&amp;#x2F;la-me-cap-taxes-20140505-column...&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s not very healthy to collect taxes this way. As the LA Times article indicated, California&amp;#x27;s tax revenue fluctuates based on the incomes of a pretty small number of people.&lt;p&gt;When a small number of people provide most of the tax revenue, yet the political discourse constantly accuses them of not paying a fair share, it&amp;#x27;s not hard to see why they feel persecuted and try to hide their money.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s also hard to say that they aren&amp;#x27;t paying their &amp;quot;fair share&amp;quot; when they provide more than half of the government&amp;#x27;s tax revenue. Anyone who wants them to pay more ought to provide some kind of objective way to calculate what someone&amp;#x27;s &amp;quot;fair share&amp;quot; of tax is, and that&amp;#x27;s probably impossible.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>afterburner</author><text>&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Wealth_inequality_in_the_United_States&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Wealth_inequality_in_the_Unite...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt;Currently, the richest 1% hold about 38% of all privately held wealth in the United States. while the bottom 90% held 73% of all debt. According to The New York Times, the &amp;quot;richest 1 percent in the United States now own more wealth than the bottom 90 percent&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;Your stats don&amp;#x27;t sound so crazy when you put it in context.&lt;p&gt;Please feel free to peruse the economic history of states where the rich eventually dodged taxes and left the crushing burden to the middle and poor: ancient Rome, modern Greece, etc.</text></comment>
<story><title>Panama: The Hidden Trillions</title><url>http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/10/27/panama-the-hidden-trillions/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>twblalock</author><text>This is what you get when the majority of tax revenue comes from a small tax base. For example, according to Pew Research (&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.pewresearch.org&amp;#x2F;fact-tank&amp;#x2F;2016&amp;#x2F;04&amp;#x2F;13&amp;#x2F;high-income-americans-pay-most-income-taxes-but-enough-to-be-fair&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.pewresearch.org&amp;#x2F;fact-tank&amp;#x2F;2016&amp;#x2F;04&amp;#x2F;13&amp;#x2F;high-income-...&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; In 2014, people with adjusted gross income, or AGI, above $250,000 paid just over half (51.6%) of all individual income taxes, though they accounted for only 2.7% of all returns filed, according to our analysis of preliminary IRS data. Their average tax rate (total taxes paid divided by cumulative AGI) was 25.7%. By contrast, people with incomes of less than $50,000 accounted for 62.3% of all individual returns filed, but they paid just 5.7% of total taxes. Their average tax rate was 4.3%.&lt;p&gt;In the state of California, &amp;quot;New figures from the Franchise Tax Board show that the wealthiest 1% of Californians paid 50.6% of the state income tax in 2012 — up from 41.1% in 2011. It means that of nearly 15 million tax returns, about 150,000 generated more than half the revenue.&amp;quot; (&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.latimes.com&amp;#x2F;local&amp;#x2F;la-me-cap-taxes-20140505-column.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.latimes.com&amp;#x2F;local&amp;#x2F;la-me-cap-taxes-20140505-column...&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s not very healthy to collect taxes this way. As the LA Times article indicated, California&amp;#x27;s tax revenue fluctuates based on the incomes of a pretty small number of people.&lt;p&gt;When a small number of people provide most of the tax revenue, yet the political discourse constantly accuses them of not paying a fair share, it&amp;#x27;s not hard to see why they feel persecuted and try to hide their money.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s also hard to say that they aren&amp;#x27;t paying their &amp;quot;fair share&amp;quot; when they provide more than half of the government&amp;#x27;s tax revenue. Anyone who wants them to pay more ought to provide some kind of objective way to calculate what someone&amp;#x27;s &amp;quot;fair share&amp;quot; of tax is, and that&amp;#x27;s probably impossible.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>cloudjacker</author><text>If you are concerned about people paying their &amp;quot;fair share&amp;quot; at all then you are playing by the wrong set of rules.&lt;p&gt;Governments funding themselves by income tax is a 100 year old phenomenon. That particular form of passive revenue generation isn&amp;#x27;t an absolute. Governments subsidized roads and schools before then, whether it was from property taxes, nationalized industries, bond programs, outright expropriation or any other form of revenue generation.&lt;p&gt;Compliance with passive taxation literally requires indoctrination, and there are people that reach a place in society where they can opt out of it.&lt;p&gt;This isn&amp;#x27;t a &amp;quot;stance&amp;quot; I subscribe to, it is a reality I can perceive. It would be disingenuous for me to say I don&amp;#x27;t understand what is going on, or hand waive it away as saying these people neglect their &amp;quot;civic duty&amp;quot;.</text></comment>