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In the good old days, 88% paid Federal income taxes… not now!

OK, you gotta go way back to  1969, but then, 88% of the U.S. population was represented on a taxable return — either as a taxpayer or a dependent.

Now, according to the Heritage Foundation, that number is down to about 50%.

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While Obama’s policies (and the recession) have ticked us to a non-taxpaying majority, the blame (or credit, depending on your perspective) belongs to Bush … when he took office in 2001, about 2/3s of the population were represented on taxpaying returns … when he left office in 2009, we were close to the 50 / 50 split.

While the Dems like to harp on the tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires, a whopping 15% of the population benefited by being taken off the tax rolls.

Maybe the economics are sensible, but the political dynamics aren’t …

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This entry was posted on June 6, 2012 at 6:59 am and is filed under Tax Loopholes, Taxes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “In the good old days, 88% paid Federal income taxes… not now!”

  1. Ivan's avatar Ivan Says:
    June 6, 2012 at 2:47 pm | Reply

    Yes, much of the latest uptick is due to the recession and of those who don’t pay income taxes ~61% pay payroll taxes, ~22% are primarily on Social Security and those earnings aren’t taxed and the rest are disabled, veterans, students and long-term unemployed.

    So – a majority do pay federal payroll taxes and the rest are elderly, disabled or very poor. What is your suggestion?

    http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3505

  2. TK's avatar TK Says:
    June 11, 2012 at 11:31 am | Reply

    Higher wages would create more tax-payers. management continues to pay itself more and then complains about high taxes.

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