The Missing Piece of the Tax Debate

For me, the debate over raising taxes on millionaires and everyone paying their fair share was looked upon as nothing more than a level playing field.  Then I began to listen to others frame this debate in different ways each with its own merit.  The cloud was lifted after I considered the arguments and discovered something that no one was talking about.

I went on Turbo Tax and plugged in the numbers for people making over one million dollars per year paying thirty percent of their income in taxes and only taking the normal deductions.  Deductions like the mortgage insurance and property taxes on their primary home, wages and salaries paid to employees, advertising and supply costs as well as payroll taxes and other business expenses and choosing one hundred percent at risk.  After doing that what showed as the refund amount was a little over what they would have paid in taxes.   What this says to me and anyone else who wish to try it is, the argument for not paying more is mute.  You pay in three hundred thousand dollars but at the end of the year you received a little over that back as a refund.

Debating paying more makes no sense to me because if I can prepare taxes and get every dime back as a refund, the more intelligent accountants can surely do the very same thing.  You do not have to take my word for it, try it yourself and see if you cannot recoup the taxes paid at the end of the year.  Basically the argument/debate is nothing but a political straw horse.  It’s an excuse not to help this nation recover from where it was taken by the very same political party that took us here in the first place.  Everyone talks the talk about individual responsibility but only a few will walk the walk.