FACT CHECK: Do rich people pay lower tax rates?

President Biden and others say the wealthy aren’t paying their fair share in federal taxes, but is that really true? #taxes #Biden #factcheck

[aegisofhonor]

that's income, most wealthy Americans don't have a salary, they have a capital gain that can be decocted easily. And Biden specifically said "billionaire" not "high income earner", billionaires almost exclusively get paid in capital gains and not income.

[caucasianafrican]

This doesn't make me resentful towards my fellow citizens, that's why we don't hear this message from the Uniparty.

[MiniBeas]

So then what about folks who have billions of dollars in stocks and then just take a loan against it... oh that's right they can do that without paying taxes....

[markblackburn]

Wrong! The rich do not have taxable income. The rich are NOT some SOB earning a $500k salary. The rich own assets which increase in value by millions each year--and they borrow against those inflated assets tax free when they need cash. These assets are not taxable until sold. No current law requires the wealthy to sell their assets. The wealthy pay zero tax, get constantly wealthier, and love inflation as much as government does. We need to migrate to a fair and simple tax system. Shame on anyone justifying our current horrible over-complicated and unfair tax system!

[spaceracer]

What's the tax rate on Biden's foreign bribes?

[duncanreeves]

Maybe there are some people who think that tax rates go down as reported income goes up, but that's not what most people mean when they say that billionaires don't pay a tax rate that working class people do. It's because the super rich get out of reporting income

This can be from a lot of things. Be it having offshore "expenses" in tax havens that are actually just owned by themselves; or just the fact that many of the richest people become richer by appreciation of their assets, not cash income. Or the fact that capital gains and many large compensation packages are taxed differently than W2 workers, or contractors. Not to mention tax loopholes with manipulating IRAs, Roth IRAs, IULs, etc; which not only usually help the rich more than the poor, but are also convoluted and not advertised for poor people to even use

Warren Buffett famously says he pays a lower tax rate than his secretary, and that's not uncommon among owners of lots of capital

[BrianDefferding]

If he is really concerned about the wealth gap between the rich and the poor, perhaps he should have not voted to bail them out consistently throughout his public office tenure.

[r.rodriguez]

"No billionaire should pay less than a teacher in taxes!"

Oh so that means you're going to lower the teacher's tax rate righ....

[joelgreen]

I really like how every politician thinks that making someone else pay more taxes helps anyone in the lower tax brackets. Maybe people pay less taxes and we have less government spending billions and billions on stuff no one wants?

[st-odpm]

Yeah you just missed that the top 1% gets their paycheck in stocks, borrows against said stock and does not have to pay shit

[MooseMagoo]

The bottom 50% of US households don't pay federal taxes. This argument that rich people aren't paying their "fair" share is mostly from people who don't pay any share.

[Karatekid]

This is a bit misleading as most billionaires chose stock options as a form of compensation that they can then leverage for loans which are tax exempt and those loans are given at extremely low interest rates. Which is how you have billionaires paying almost nothing in taxes. Because technically they have no “income”

[jw]

Even if they were paying lower rates, they'd still be paying quantifiably more than the rest of us.

[brianparkhurst]

No "rich" person is paying anywhere near that. Im retired now, but in 25 years of business I never paid more than 15%. Most of the time a lot less. Normal people are taxed on income. Well there are a lot of ways not to have an "income ". All legal too.

[hugehappygrin]

wealthy politicians begging to tax the wealthy, the irony.

[warrick]

So here's an idea, cut our taxes instead of just proposing increases on one group or another

[edwardpaddock]

So, you are saying Warren Buffett does not understand money?

[coconutcookie]

Hey guy, if have a hundred dollars and pay one in taxes, I’ve given more than if I was a billionaire and gave a few million in taxes. That’s what people are complaining about.

[randyquinn]

I have a rule, when politicians say "fair" anything (or free) don't believe them.

[bobthemagicmoose]

A few caveats: the rich have more financial incentive to use tax planning to avoid realizing gains etc. People talking about them not paying taxes usually implicate unrealized gains in their calculations. Not saying anyone is right or wrong, but someone like Musk can accumulate vast amounts of wealth that he doesn’t exercise and thus doesn’t pay taxes on.

Secondly, many rich people don’t separate work and pleasure so they are able to put vast amounts of their consumption on the company dime (an untaxed benefit). The fancy car, plane, apartment in the city, most meals, golfing with clients, etc. Again, not saying it’s wrong but it is something that doesn’t seem fair.