The wolf is in the house in front of us, and we're slathering our skin with steak sauce.

Love the "can't wait until he cuts taxes" comments - it's like we completely forgot we recently tried that failed experiment. That worked great for us when Bush did it in 2003. I've got to time it right to sell my real estate about 4 years after the tax cuts happen, then buy it back about 3 years after that when the economy is near the bottom of the crapper.

When one individual makes 1.2 million has too pay a third of 1.3 million for office fees and gets slapped with a 30% Tax before the office fees are subtracted? Yeah I don't particularly like our current taxing system. When that one individual also has massive school debts from 4 years of college and 4 years of medical school? When that one individual works 15 hours a day? When that one individual gets 2 nights off out of a month? To be taxed 40%? This isn't easy money being earned this money is hard worked for yet a 40% tax seems justifiable? Even before a $433,000 overhead? Do the math fellas 1.2 to start lets take away 40% aka .48. Then lets take away .43. This leaves us with (DrumRoll please) .29!! so folks we went from 1.2 million to $290,000! Some might call this robbery I like to call it our Government. Now I get it some might say well Daniel stop being a bitch that's still a lot of money! I agree! But While it is a large sum of money it hardly seems comparable to the starting amount now does it? But why stop there? Lets see what those wages are like hourly shall we? 365 days a year right? 3 weeks off the entire year that drops us down to 344. Two days a month drops us to 320. (note- holidays aren't off days) from there we can get into some real math! 320 days a year multiplied by the 145 hours a day! That is a nice solid number of 46,400 lets do some Wizarding math folks and we get YIKES 6.25 an hour? Yup double check me strip me down put me up against the wall (wait jk don't do that last part). As a professional pulmonologist this man makes 6.25 an hour what is minimum wage in Texas again? DONT WORRY I HAVE IT!!!! 7.25!!! Thanks for playing folks!!! Ill see you next time on why America's Taxation system needs work!!


No But seriously this is pitiful. I never realized just how much my father makes per hour until he broke down the math for me and I have to say I am disgusted... Sure it is a lot of money but at what cost when broken down? 6.25 an hour that is how much. I am not trying to be rude or mad but this is honestly saddening to see. Add to it that my father still has massive loans from Medical School and College and we have a bad situation. It just pisses me off when people like Slypups talk without using their fucking brains (if they have one). People assume that everyone in the Tax bracket can afford to give the money away and I really and truly am not denying that a majority of them probably could pay for it. But I feel that it is that minority that needs attention. My father is part of that minority yet he has been damned for following his dreams.... Does that seem fair to you guys?

There's a lot more going on than taxes there.

And I am not denying that I am simply saying that the whole situation should be taken into account before taxes are applied. That is the problem people are just generalizing the wealthy

What do you mean not apply taxes?

Where did I say that?.... and I meant that the the Tax Bracket as it stands right now generalizes way to much. IE just because a person makes above X amount doesn't mean that they are going to keep all of it.

Daniel, is the tax rate in question 30% or 40%? You gave two numbers there. Also, 145 hours a day is a...pretty exceptional schedule. Also, what do you mean by office fees? Because it sounds like you're attributing those to government, but it's not clear that that's the case.

Anyway, let's try that wizarding math again. 320 days/year, 15 hours a day makes 4800 hours in a year. $290k/4800 ~ $60/hr.

If the tax rate was actually 30% as originally stated, you'd be looking at $410k, or about $85/hr.

But yeah, you're basically living the minimum-wage lifestyle, right?

39.6 to be precise as far the tax rate goes (I rounded to 40 my bad)

And don't be sassy you know I meant 15 hours a day. And my father has an office where he practices. He is ownership of practice with 3 people each person pays 1/3 of the fees at the end of the day.... 1/3 of 1.3 also I am not blaming the government for the office fees that would be ridiculous and unreasonable all I am saying is that the Tax Bracket as it stands right now doesn't take all the numbers into account

"you know I meant 15 hours a day"
But you did the math as though it was seriously 145...

Your father needs a better tax accountant.

As a business expense, office fees are deductible from income, so that reduces taxable income.

Most of what you mentioned like school loans are not taxes, but expenses he has to pay no matter how much or little he makes. He went into debt to get a better paying job. You don't complain about the cost of food and housing as something that the government forces upon you, but they come out of his salary, too.

Im not saying that the loan is the governments responsibility Random all I am simply trying to point out is that there are other factors in play other than how the gvnt. (And most people) view it Person 1 makes X amount therefore Tax him Y%

Some amount of that tax comes back to you (in theory) as social security and medicare when you get older because we pretty much suck at saving for the rainy day. If you truly are one of the poor oppressed rich people in this country, also take heart that a large chunk of taxes goes towards national defense, national security, and legal systems all designed to protect wealth and create a stable system for the wealthy to accumulate more wealth - those systems don't do as much to protect someone living paycheck to paycheck, because such a person has little wealth to lose and little hope to accumulate much.

But if you don't like it, you can always move yourself and your wealth to a low tax government and spend your own untaxed funds to hire your own militia and bodyguards to protect your money - of course, that will probably cost you close to the same amount you are spending in taxes, with the additional downside that your life will be in greater danger and you'll be dealing with greater crime and corruption - which is fine if you don't mind getting morally dirty yourself. But hey - let's just talk about what you pay in taxes and not think about the government benefits you receive, or just focus on the benefits to the poor or average American without considering the incredible value you reap from a stable society constructed to diminish crime and corruption and avoid a revolt from the underclass. That's so much easier to do. Please pass the blinders - I do not want to see beyond my narrow world view.

Based on the fact that the wealthy are getting wealthier while the poor are getting poorer and the middle class is shrinking, I can only conclude that the wealthy are receiving greater government benefits than taxes paid compared to others, because wealth is currently flowing upwards overall. This suggests we are actually undertaxing the wealthy.

Lol slypups I really like you man no joke "poor oppressed rich people" I am not trying to invoke pity or anything All I am really trying to say is that my family is classified as rich by the government (which we are I will admit) But we still are hit with taxes that harm us way more than they would harm the richer upperclass people. See my point? The taxes were made keeping their situation in mind not my families.

That's true - the ultrarich do far better than the rich. And the rich do better than the middle class. And so on. The dirt poor probably do ok, because they basically pay only a 7-10% tax (whatever the local sales tax is, since they pretty much spend every dime they have on goods), unless they buy alcohol or cigarettes with most of their money, in which case, ironically some completely broke people maybe have 30-40% of their funds taxed every year.

The bigger problem is government waste. I don't mind the taxes (and I'm taxed near the top rate - no AMT for me), but I hate seeing the inefficiencies in government spending. We could do a lot better there.

But the problem with what you said up above is that each socioeconomic class has its own tax bracket except the "rich and the Ultrarich"

It's graduated tax. Everyone pays the same amount of tax on income up to each level. You only pay a higher tax on additional amounts you make that others don't. So the ultrarich don't really have their "own" tax bracket. The highest bracket is currently $418,400+, where you pay $0.396 to the federal government for each $1 you earn above that, but you don't pay that rate for the first $418,000.

For the curious: http://taxfoundation.org/article/2017-tax-brackets

I'll echo what was said above - your dad needs to get an accountant, Dammm. Office fees shouldn't be taxed. Another quibble - the tax rate is only ~40% on annual income above $400k or so. So your dad's entire income is not taxed at this rate.

All that said, I'd argue the opposite of one of the points you're trying to make. The tax code is way too complicated as it is. Complicating it further by taking into account all possible personal circumstances doesn't make any sense to me.

Oops. Got ninja-ed by slypups.

I'm with you, though AleBelly

I'm very excited for the Trump presidency. Don't listen to all these sore, crying liberals.

Trump's cabinet lacks establishment insiders, business elite and globalists. #DRAINTHESWAMP!

(/sarcasm)

#RefillTheSwamp because #HeStillAppointsCorruptOnes

The tax code is complicated because of about a century of special interest groups have gotten bits added to help themselves. Every time the code gets modified someone gains at the expense of those that can't afford to take the time to reduce their own taxes.

Case in point, Trump uses loopholes for real estate investors that allows him to offset his federal income with debts from his businesses that involve money from his investors and not his own. Whereas we can only use debts being paid from our own money. Based upon tax records that were released or leaked, Trump may have paid no federal income tax for over 10 years while getting an income in the multi millions.

Excitement!! Mediocrity at best-ness!!!!