If it hurt to write that check to Uncle Sam, you’re not alone: personal income taxes have risen in 21 out of 34 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries in recent years. The biggest increases overall were reported in Portugal, the Slovak Republic, and the United States. Today, Americans pay out about a…
What is income, anyway? A reader sent me an email after my last post and asked me to clarify what I meant when I referred to income when figuring tax rates. That same day, another reader on @twitter asked me to explain how our progressive income tax system works – did all income get taxed…
What’s your number? You know, your tax rate for federal income tax purposes? I know, you’re thinking 20%, 30%, maybe even 35%. Far higher than Mitt Romney, right? You probably pay much less than you think. Most people think of their marginal tax rates when you ask them what they pay in tax. A marginal…
Under growing pressure from other GOP candidates, GOP presidential hopeful and frontrunner Mitt Romney has released some limited information about his finances this week. It turns out *gasp* that Romney has done pretty well for himself over the years. But, really, we already knew that. While we don’t know the specifics, Romney’s net worth is…
In recent days, both front-runner Newt Gingrich and Texas Governor Rick Perry have touted their respective “optional flat tax” plans as an easy solution to a complicated tax system. Under both plans, taxpayers would have the option of filing under the existing Tax Code or filing with a flat tax rate (Perry has suggested 20%…
Yesterday marked the month long anniversary of Occupy Wall Street. I realize that there are those that quibble with the dates as the actual protest has been a long time coming but the first organized group of protestors reportedly hit the streets of New York City on September 17, marking the more or less official…
It’s Fix the Tax Code Friday! This week, Warren Buffett continued to be all over the news for his statements about taxes for the very wealthy. In case you’ve missed it, Buffett has amped up the rhetoric on tax reform by suggesting that those in higher brackets benefit disproportionately from existing breaks in the Tax…
Imagine for a minute how you’d feel if you found out that Congress passed a law that would allow your neighbor to pay less tax than you – a lot less tax than you – simply because they waited so long to do it. That’s exactly what a measure introduced this week by Rep. Kevin…