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I have to pay more taxes than Romney does. I pay 15% self-employment tax and then my income tax on top of that. On the other hand there are deductions.



Umm, no. I'm an Enrolled Agent, a tax pro. Most wealthy people including 99% of all polititians you could name have a lot of money in investments. Investments are made with after tax funds. That is they earned it, paid tax on it then bought the investment. This is why investment income is taxed at a much lower rate than earned income because the funds have already been taxed. Few people understand that.

Investments are not guaranteed, people can and do lose money all the time. Some rich guy could lose a million bucks and how much can he write off that year? $3,000. $3,000?!? Yep that's it. Now, he can use that loss to offset future investment earnings but what if there isn't any? Then he takes 3 grand a year forever or until he dies, whichever comes first. If the government didn't give a tax break for those investments noboby would take the risk and invest in anything, they would just keep their after tax money in the bank at less than 1%.

Not getting into any kind of political discussion at all here, just making a very basic and incomplete (very incomplete) tax comment.

Bob


Very nice lesson Bob, but this is how the laws are made, by the rich (even by proxy via campaign funds), to favor the rich.

A person who invests in a business is a part owner of that business and indeed has some risk involved.

Every self-employed business owner has some risk involved. I financed my two businesses on credit card debts, others take out mortgages on their homes, some have so much at risk that if their business venture fails, they would end up in a homeless shelter.

Yet we self-employed pay 15% self-employment tax -- and our income tax on top of that. The money my fried spent on his dental supply business was money he paid income tax on, and took a second mortgage on his home for. The money I spent to buy keyboards, computers, sound modules, MIDI controllers on my credit card was money I already paid tax on. In my other business, saxophones, guitars, PA set, synthesizers flute, microphones, etc., were also financed on credit cards. Until my "business loan to myself" was paid off, I was definitely at risk for much more of my life than the upper 5% are.

I have a relative who owned a furniture store. Enlarged it during the construction boom. The demand went down, he ended up declaring bankruptcy, the bank took his store, has home, the home his wife had before they were married, an apartment they owned, and left them living in a house they were holding in trust for their granddaughter until she turned 35. When granddaughter took possession of the house, he was dead, and his widow was left without even the home she owned when they got married. She is now a renter living on social security and his air force pension.

So don't give me the Faux News line that the rich investors have more to lose. People like Romney and others could loose many millions of dollars and it won't affect their life style one bit. The fact that they are paying a smaller percentage of tax than my self-employment tax, is just because the rich rigged the game in their favor.

And I chose Romney because it's current. He is definitely not the first, not the only one, and will not be the last. So don't count this as a political barb but instead a state of the union comment.

We live and a Fascist republic now, according to the definition stated by the inventor of Fascism himself, Benito Mussolini, and I quote the translation from the Italian, "Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power."

If the laws were fair, and if everybody paid their fair share instead of loading the highest percentage of tax burden on the middle classes, it would be much easier to make a living at being a musician.

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