This morning, I received this email from a friend:
Time to consider your pocketbook:
C A PIT A L G A INS T A X
MCC A IN:
0% on home sales up to $500,000 per home (couples). McCain does not propose any change in existing home sales income tax.OB A M A:
28% on profit from A LL home salesHow does this affect you?
If you sell your home and make a profit, you will pay 28% of your gain on taxes. If you are heading toward retirement and would like to down-size your home or move into a retirement community, 28% of the money you make from your home will go to taxes. This proposal will adversely affect the elderly who are counting on the income from their homes as part of their retirement income.
DIVIDEND T A X
MCC A IN : 15% (no change)OB A M A : 39.6%
How will this affect you?
If you have any money invested in stock market, IR A , mutual funds, college funds, life insurance, retirement accounts, or anything that pays or reinvests dividends, you will now be paying nearly 40% of the money earned on taxes if Obama becomes president. The experts predict that ‘Higher tax rates on dividends and capital gains would crash the stock market, yet do absolutely nothing to cut the deficit.’
INCOME T A X (find your bracket)
MCC A IN (no changes)Single making 30K – tax $4,500
Single making 50K – tax $12,500
Single making 75K – tax $18,750
Married making 60K- tax $9,000
Married making 75K – tax $18,750
Married making 125K – tax $31,250OB A M A (reverse all tax cuts)
Single making 30K – tax $8,400
Single making 50K – tax $14,000
Single making 75K – tax $23,250
Married making 60K – tax $16,800
Married making 75K – tax $21,000
Married making 125K – tax $38,750Under Obama, your taxes will more than double!
How does this affect you? No explanation needed. This is pretty straight
forward.INHERIT A NCE T A X
MCC A IN 0% (No change, Bush repealed this tax)
OB A M A Restore the inheritance tax
How does this affect you?
Many families have lost businesses, farms, ranches, and homes that have been in their families for generations because they could not afford the inheritance tax. Those willing their assets to loved ones will only lose them to these taxes.
NEW T A XES BEING PROPOSED BY OB A M A
New government taxes proposed on homes that are more than 2400 square feet.
New gasoline taxes (as if gas weren’t high enough already)
New taxes on natural resources consumption (heating gas, water, electricity)
New taxes on retirement accounts, and last but not least….
New taxes to pay for socialized medicine so we can receive the same level of medical care as other third-world countries!!!
THE FOREGOING IS SOMETHING YOU SHOULD BE A W A RE OF. . . IT SHOULD M A KE YOU THINK BEFORE YOU C A ST YOUR VOTE IN NOVEMBER.
Please spread the word. This will catch a lot of families off guard.
Like the Pelosi email, this email is not based on facts.
Factcheck.org, a nonpartisan, nonprofit, “consumer advocate” for voters, did some research and found:
This widely distributed message is so full of misinformation that we find it impossible to believe that it is the result of simple ignorance or carelessness on the part of the writer. Almost nothing it says about Obama’s tax proposals is true. We conclude that this deception is deliberate.
Remember, in an election season, folks will say anything. Don’t believe anything you receive in an email without first checking the source. You can always visit each candidate’s own web site (McCain or Obama) to read and review copies of their tax plans. You can also check nonpartisan reviews and analyses – you can find information on a recent Tax Policy Center report here. You can also send your questions to me to research – remember, I love tax policy questions!
But now to the specifics of the email…
Capital gains tax on homes: There is no change. McCain and Obama would both continue to exempt the first $250,000 of gain from the sale of a primary residence ($500,000 for a married couple filing jointly).
Capital gains tax on other assets: Obama has not proposed a flat 28% capital gains tax rate. He does favor raising the highest capital gains rate above the current level for families making $250,000 or more but has suggested that it would be considerably less than 28%.
Dividend tax: Obama’s position on taxing dividends more or less mirrors his position on capital gains.
Retirement and savings plans: Neither candidate has suggested changes in the way that 529 plans or IRAs are taxed.
Income tax: The tables as illustrated in the email are simply not true. You can check out the previously noted tax reports from the candidates’ own sites or the Tax Policy Center report for the correct proposed rates.
Inheritance tax: First off, inheritance taxes are imposed by states, not the feds. The federal government imposes a federal estate tax on estates over the exemption amount.
And this should be the most telling sign that this email is seriously flawed: it states that there is no such tax because Bush repealed it. This is certainly not true: we still have a federal estate tax. The exemption amount for the federal estate tax is currently $2 million per individual or $4 million per married couple – it is slated to rise to $3.5 million per individual or $7 million per married couple (thus only affecting the top 2% of taxpayers).
McCain had initially hoped to repeal the tax completely but has reached a compromise plan. He proposes to reduce the estate tax rate to 15% and increase the exemption to $5 million per individual or $10 million per couple.
Obama has proposed freezing the estate tax at the 2009 levels. That would result in a $3 million exemption for individuals and a $6 million exemption for married couples. The top rate would remain 45%.
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The remainder of the accusations about “new taxes” are either bunk or spin.
I’m not sure where this email originated. This is clearly not put out by the McCain camp, as it distorts McCain’s record, too. While the source of the email is not certain, some versions of the email purport to come from Robert Jenkins, a vice president of Wachovia Securities in St. Louis, Missouri. When factcheck.org attempted to contact Wachovia, they received the following response:
Thank you for contacting Wachovia regarding a recent email regarding “proposed changes in taxes after the 2008 General election.” Please know that Wachovia does not endorse any political party, candidate, or initiative, and that our Firm did not endorse or approve the email as it is contrary to our Code of Conduct and Corporate Values.
Members of executive and departmental leadership in Wachovia Corporation and Wachovia Securities have been made aware of the email, and Robert Jenkins has been dealt with appropriately and directly. Every effort has been made to ensure that no additional emails or communications of this nature will be issued by any member of our Firm.
We sincerely apologize for this unfortunate incident.
Cynthia Plackemeier
Assistant Branch Manager
Wachovia did not mention the incident on their web site, not surprisingly.
So there you go. The email – no matter where it came from – is thoroughly flawed. Remember to check your facts before you hit forward: your friends and family will thank you for it!
I too recently received a frivolous email very similar to this one. As a retired CPA (and former Internal Revenue Agent) I was immediately aware that it was bogus. Fatcheck.org is an excellent source of information — thank you Kelly, for helping to debunk this ridiculous spam.
I rely on Factcheck.org as a reliable source, but something looks odd about the Wachovia response. I think its weird that a big corporation would mention the employee’s name and that he’s been “dealt” with. Also thats a pretty generic job title of “assistant branch manager”.
I, too get a lot of those goofy e-mails. Although very conservative when it comes to government, I am very annoyed to receive that junk. The overall message seems to be, “It was generated by conservative interests, so it has to be true!”, so recipients just blindly keep it going. That kind of you-know-what doesn’t further anyone’s cause and I’m very disappointed that conservatives who claim to promote truth as one of their virtues would resort to such embellishments, editing, and downright lies.