This concerns only the personal income tax.
Under Obama's plan people who do not work will not benefit by this, but people that work and do not pay taxes will. The top 5% of taxpayers pay approximately 50% of the personal tax revenue. Raise the top 5% taxes by approximately 3% and spread it among workers. If distributed evenly among remaining taxpayers and it would be an even 3% for everyone, but it will also go to workers that do not pay taxes, or about 30% of workers (what Obama calls "Making Work Pay"). My "relief" is something like a third of a percent of my taxable income. Going lower on the pay scale and the spread starts climbing until it reaches 3% between 50 to 40 thousand of taxable income and climbs from there to infinity (math, don't you love it?) if you pay no taxes. In other words, the less you make, the larger the "relief" is compared to your taxable income. Since about 65% of workers make between 20K and 30K, my gut feeling is the amount raised on the top 5% may actually not be enough to cover it. I don't think the raise in taxes will benefit the government, only re-distribute the wealth, and that my friends, is Socialism.
Under Obama's plan people who do not work will not benefit by this, but people that work and do not pay taxes will. The top 5% of taxpayers pay approximately 50% of the personal tax revenue. Raise the top 5% taxes by approximately 3% and spread it among workers. If distributed evenly among remaining taxpayers and it would be an even 3% for everyone, but it will also go to workers that do not pay taxes, or about 30% of workers (what Obama calls "Making Work Pay"). My "relief" is something like a third of a percent of my taxable income. Going lower on the pay scale and the spread starts climbing until it reaches 3% between 50 to 40 thousand of taxable income and climbs from there to infinity (math, don't you love it?) if you pay no taxes. In other words, the less you make, the larger the "relief" is compared to your taxable income. Since about 65% of workers make between 20K and 30K, my gut feeling is the amount raised on the top 5% may actually not be enough to cover it. I don't think the raise in taxes will benefit the government, only re-distribute the wealth, and that my friends, is Socialism.