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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTop U.S. tax breaks to cost $12 trillion over decade, benefit wealthy: CBO
The top ten tax deductions, credits and exclusions will keep $12 trillion out of federal government coffers over the next decade, and several of them mainly benefit the wealthiest Americans, a new study from the Congressional Budget Office shows.
The top 20 percent of income earners will reap more than half of the $900 billion in benefits from these tax breaks that will accrue in 2013, the non-partisan CBO said on Wednesday.
Further, 17 percent of the total benefits would go to the top 1 percent of income earners -- families earning roughly $450,000 or more. The same group that was hit with a tax rate hike in January.
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"This shows that we could achieve a significant amount of deficit reduction by limiting the preferences to the highest income earners," said Representative Chris Van Hollen, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/30/us-usa-fiscal-taxbreaks-idUSBRE94S1FS20130530?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews
HiPointDem
(20,729 posts)AndyA
(16,993 posts)They either don't know, don't care, or something. Why isn't everyone screaming about this? The wealthy are successful because things are set up for them to succeed. The wealthy are the welfare whores, not the average American workers.
mindwalker_i
(4,407 posts)Guess they haven't connected the fire they feel in their asses with their voting.
FreakinDJ
(17,644 posts)bhikkhu
(10,708 posts)...and it is worth reading the article.
#1 is the exclusion for employer-paid health benefits. That's where an employer can pay for your health insurance, or contribute toward your health insurance, and you don't have to claim it as income and pay taxes on it. $3.4 trillion.
#2 is the exclusion of pension contributions, so when a company pays into your pension fund, that doesn't count as income you have to pay taxes on. $2 trillion.
...then there's another trillion for the mortgage interest tax deduction. And $1.1 trillion in state and local taxes, which are allowed to be excluded so you don't pay taxes on money you used to pay taxes.
And so forth. Not that there are no unfair deductions, but for the most part deductions are there for a reason. People should read articles before jumping to conclusion, and you can't unfurl up "THE 1%!!!" banner on every single issue. That's how you can get conned into support things like the flat tax, or any of the other simplifications that would make the tax code far less progressive than it is. Much of the complexity of the tax code comes as a result trying to make it more fair and progressive.