Federal Income Tax Rates for the Year 2013 (Merry Christmas!)

Vanity | 12/16/13 | Self 

You can check this for yourself. Search "top tax rate 2013" read and think just a little. It is just numbers and that seems to make the eyes of most people glaze over. Heck, a huge number don't even pay taxes.
Welcome to the USSA. This is hope and change obastard style. This is sharing the pie. This is more fat cat politicians controlling you, more government employees, more TSA, more homeland security, more navigators, more food stamps, section 8 housing, and LESS FREEDOM and LESS HOPE.
The new top tax rate will be a whopping 47.2%
39.6% (top marginal rate) + 3.8% (net investment income tax) + 2.9% (both sides of medicare / medicade) + 0.9% (medicare surtax) = 47.2%
plus whatever state and local taxes there are. This is how you get to the 60% Hannity is always talking about.
This compares with the previous total top rate of 35% + 2.9% = 37.9%
The increase in $ of taxes to pay is 47.2% / 37.9% = 24.5%
Long term capital gains taxes are going from 15% to 20% + 3.8% = 23.8% and the increase in $ of taxes to pay will increase by 23.8% / 15% = 58.7%. Let that soak in. It is nearly a 60% increase in money to the Federal Treasury for money earned by people risking it in a company or their own business.
I'm not sure what, if any, example will hit home but let't try one. Say you have worked for 10 years to save up enough to go to Vegas. You scrimped and scraped and worked odd jobs to accumulate $100k. You are only allowed to play one hand of cards and the house stakes are $100k. This is high stakes but the gain is limited to 25%, $25k. That's all. You bet your hard earned $100k and walk away with nothing or $125k minus taxes. The taxes are 47.2% on everything over your base earned income so it is 47.2% of all your increase from winning this one hand of poker. This is your choice: a) Put your hard earned $100k in the bank and keep it and earn a little and pay taxes on that gain or b) Play one hand of poker where you can walk away with ZERO or pocket $100K + $25k - $25k x 0.472 = 113.2K and uncle sugar gets $12.8k for doing nothing so he can give it to the crackhead in the parking lot that is going to not only rob you but may kill you.
Even this example does not come very close to what a businessman has to do when he invests his money in a company. He also has to WORK to put his money at risk.
Almost nobody cares about the "rich dude" paying taxes at this rate but they should and they will, in time. Top earners are being hammered on taxes and they will respond somehow. I will not be surprised if many "Go Galt". The tax rate didn't go up just a few percent. On an equal basis investment income tax went from 35% to 43.4%. That, boys and girls, is a 24% increase in taxes paid. It is the same as a man making $100k a year and paying $25k in taxes now paying $30k in taxes. $75k take home vs. $70k take home. A new 3.8% tax is being assessed on investment income and that includes any gain on your house when you sell it. That is a tax on the profit on money you have already earned and decided to invest and take a risk that you may not get the money back. Doesn't matter? Not now but people who have money will think a lot harder about how they invest. They will sideline their money or demand a higher rate of return for their investment. In the first case the economy will stagnate. In the second case the cost of everything will go up.
While you draw your next breath and blabber about all the "juicy deductions" the rich get. Bite your tongue. Many of them are going away and there was not much left anyway.
You don't have to be "rich" to get into these rates and risk. A guy who buys a truck and eventually puts more than a couple $million at risk with 8 or 10 trucks is now "rich" enough to pay these taxes. How do you think he likes uncle obastard taking almost half of the profit he makes?
You may not make enough money to pay these taxes but how hard do you want to work to be able to pay this kind of taxes? How many 16 to 18 hour days and no vacation years will you give up to keep 50% or less of the gain you make?
Welcome to the USSA. This is hope and change. This is sharing the pie. This is pulling the top down to make poverty a little better but it will still be poverty. Reagan said that it is sharing the misery. He was right. There is no hope in mediocrity.