In New York, Assembly Speaker (and de facto Governor) Sheldon Silver and other Democrats will impose a two percentage point "millionaire tax" on New Yorkers who earn more than $200,000 a year ($300,000 for couples). This will lift the top state tax rate to 8.97% and the New York City rate to 12.62%. Since capital gains and dividends are taxed as ordinary income, New York will impose the nation's highest taxes on investment income -- at a time when Wall Street is in jeopardy of losing its status as the world's financial capital.
But who and where are all these millionaires to pluck? More than any other state, New York has been hurt by the financial meltdown, and its $132 billion budget is now $17.7 billion in deficit. The days of high-roller Wall Street bonuses that finance 20% of the New York budget are long gone. The richest 1% of New Yorkers already pay almost 40% of the income tax, and the top 0.5% pay 30%.
Mr. Silver thinks he can squeeze more from these folks without any economic harm, arguing that recent income tax hikes didn't hurt New Jersey. (Yes, the pols in New York actually hold up New Jersey, whose economy and budget are also in shambles, as their role model.) The tax hike lobby in Albany points to a paper by Princeton researchers reporting that the number of "half-millionaires," those with incomes above $500,000, increased by 60% from 2003-2006 after New Jersey taxes rose (the top rate is now 8.98%). But this was a boom time for the national economy, especially in the financial industry where many New Jerseyites work, or at least used to work.
The better comparison is how New Jersey compared to the rest of the nation. According to the study's own data, over the same period the U.S. saw an increase of 76% in half-millionaire households. E.J. McMahon, a budget expert at the Manhattan Institute, calculates that New Jersey lost more than 4,000 high-income taxpayers after the tax increase.
Mr. Silver says of the coming tax hikes: "We've done it before. There hasn't been a catastrophe." Oh, really? According to Census Bureau data, over the past decade 1.97 million New Yorkers left the state for greener pastures -- the biggest exodus of any state. New York City has lost more than 75,000 jobs since last August, and many industrial areas upstate are as rundown as Detroit. The American Legislative Exchange Council recently said New York had the worst economic outlook of all 50 states, including Michigan. And that analysis was done before these $4 billion in new taxes. How does Mr. Silver define "catastrophe"?
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Check out the new CELL PHONE TAX in NY
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I really have to believe that the rich have not been paying anywheres near their fair share of taxes for a good many years so I won't get out my handkerchief and grieve for them because of the possibility that they may have to pay out a few more trinkets out in addition to what little taxes that they are paying out now if any!
ReplyDeleteQuite using the words "Fair Share". All Americans are created equal, and ALL should pay EXACTLY the same percentage of tax. Anything else is simply Socialistic in nature. This country thrives on pitting one group against another; rich against poor is just one example. Don't give in to this Socialistic way of thinking!!!
ReplyDeleteQuit using the words "Fair Share". All Americans are created equal, and ALL should pay EXACTLY the same percentage of tax. Anything else is simply Socialistic in nature. This country thrives on pitting one group against another; rich against poor is just one example. Don't give in to this Socialistic way of thinking!!!
ReplyDeleteThe whole taxation system is a scam anyway. It's based on a system of Commerce Law that incorporated you at birth, in which you contracted with the government to offer your "labour" to pay THEIR debts to the banks. Figure out how the game is played and you'll never pay for these tax hikes.
ReplyDeleteRich people (if one can call rich anyone with an income of $200,000) do not use more roads, more social services, more drivers's lisences, etc. Why should they pay more? If everyone is equal, then everyone should make an equal contribution percentage wise.
ReplyDeleteHere is the dirty little secret the Rich People spend a lot of money. In addition the money they save in banks is lent to you to buy a car or house. Or to you for capital in your landscaping company or new IPO.
ReplyDeleteTo put it to you another way rich people are like your dairy cows. If you kill them for meat you don't get any more milk. And you could have gotten alot more milk then meat over the life of the cow.
Funny how the people (rich people) being defended by most posters are also the same people (those in government) being attacked by these posters . Time to let ideological confusion pass. Circular arguments are pointless, dogs chasing their tales while the masters (the rich) could not care less.
ReplyDeleteSocialist leaders and some government officials argue that the rich are merely trying to shirk their social responsibilities by fleeing the country with their millions.
ReplyDeleteThe wealth tax -- officially called the solidarity tax -- is collected on top of income, capital gains, inheritance and social security taxes. It's part of the reason France consistently ranks at the top of Forbes magazine's annual Tax Misery Index -- a global listing of the most heavily taxed nations.
Maybe coming soon to America....THE SOLIDARITY TAX.....Obama are you listening! It's a great opportunity for smart countries and states to attract the wealthy and high producers/earners with tax BREAKS so they can SPEND MORE,LEND MORE and CREATE MORE JOBS because of that I can sell more and build more real estate which is what got us in trouble financially in the first place.
You need to enlighten your brains just a little. Stop clinging to "dirty" words like socialism just because Alex Jones told you it was bad. Ironic, because some of you actually have it backwards. The rich provide NO milk. They take it from the labor of the underclasses simply because they have more liquidity in their hands. But what did they produce? NOTHING! Unless you count the ponzi scheme that the nation's most rich have subscribed to and gotten rich off of. Sure, do away with the tax system, but don't be led astray to believe that it's the rich and not the poor, average citizen that gets screwed EVERY TIME. Duh.
ReplyDeleteCount Nomulan that's BS. The rich invest money, they create businesses and jobs. Don't you think that many of the people we call rich also have provided labor at some point in their lives to get where they are? The rich are as important as anyone else.
ReplyDeleteWe know socialism is bad because it is a proven failure, give people some credit instead of assuming you're the only one who can think for yourself.
Our founding fathers supported a progressive tax system because they believed that the concentration of wealth in too few hands created an aristocratic society reminiscent of the European system they had just fought against.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is really not that the rich get taxed more (and really for those of you who are saying over $200,00 is not rich than you are fooling yourself, that is more than 4 times the average family makes. It may not be the filthy, stinky rich but it is rich), it is that the money is being so mismanaged that the investment they are making through their tax dollars are not worth it. The programs in place to help the poor, do very little but suppress them further and create additional drain on the tax payer, the public schools do little to create a decent labor pool for the rich to hire, our infrastructure is horrible, or border and ports are not safe…the list could go on and on.
We need to not be arguing about how much we all pay, but start demanding that we see real results from what we DO pay.
Oh OKAY, I stand corrected. Some rich people do produce rather than "create" jobs through labor enslavement. But when did I ever claim differently...
ReplyDeleteAnd the point is whether it's american style capitalism with "socialism" leanings, or Soviet Communism, it is still those at the top that control the power and the wealth and leave the masses on bottom, who by far do most of the real work, poor.
Scrap taxes
ReplyDeleteScrap the dollar bill
Scrap the government
Scrap day-time soap operas and CSI
That's a start
ReplyDeleteAnon is misinformed. The founding fathers had no income tax so how could there be a progressive tax? The effing revolution was fought over taxes just like the one I'm afraid is coming to a country near you soon!
ReplyDeleteCount Nomulan,
ReplyDeleteYou're also forgetting that the rich contribte through their ideas, just as management do in the corporate structure. While management personnel may not do "real" work as you say, meaning of course manual labor, they get paid to think and lead, not to do, generally speaking. The rich fulfill much of this role.
I think you're tending towards the belief that somehow most rich people are celebrities or trust fund kids. Maybe among the hyper-rich. They are vastly in the minority though among the 250k - 25 million per year crowd.
The founding fathers envisioned no such "progressive" (read: regressive) tax structure, that is pure nonsense, lol.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet what is so truly good and valuable about corporate ideas?
ReplyDeleteHmm, no taxes? What about... our constitution. Article 1, Section 8, Clause 1: "The Congress shall have the power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States."
ReplyDeleteTaxes were not originialy levied by income, but by property, which meant what? That the rich were taxed while the poor (non -land owners) were not taxed. The more property you owned, the more you were taxed. That sounds like a progressive tax to me.
having been taxed out of my home state and place of birth New York im glad the taxes are going higher and higher and higher there and i hope they get so high the people revolt and leave and let me rebuy the old homestead hand built by my father and mother at a price nearly free and freer from tax, but that sh*t is coming here to...........
ReplyDeleteEveryone should pay a flat F---ing tax.
ReplyDeleteGet rid of the crazy tax codes that nobody
can understand. Everybody should pay the same damn rate. Period . And i am one of the poor. So there.
Oh yeah , cut the f---ing defense budget.
ReplyDeleteThe U.S. only spends more on the art of killing than all other countries COMBINED!
I mean a few less billion doller fighter jets
and a couple of missle cruiseres or ICBMs
could probably give all americans health
insurance. The F---ing cold war is over already.