CommentsDisplaying ESK's 10 most recent comments.

• ‘It’s Not True’: Kansas Rep. Shoots Down Al Sharpton‘s ’Is it Fair’ Tax Mantra in Fiery Debate (Now with Beck Reaction)

  January 26, 2012 at 11:59am

  In reply to ESK.

  Keep drinking your kool-ade and believing everything that the DNC throws your way. What is completely lost on people like you is that while someone might be paying 15% on their income from capital gains, you oh-so-conveniently ignore is that they put their own capital at risk and many times have capital losses. Just so you know what a capital loss is, it is defined as decrease in value that occurs when a capital asset is sold for less than its original purchase price. Capital assets come in many forms, the most popular being stock, bonds, property, and mutual funds. Comparing the original price paid (less commissions) to the sale price (plus any commissions) will determine whether or not you have incurred a loss on the sale.

  If someone experience a loss, and the loss results from the sale of a capital asset that was held for less than one year, then the loss is referred to as a short- term capital loss. If the asset was held for more than one year, then the loss is referred to as a long- term capital loss.

  The I.R.S. has limits on how much you can write off. You are restricted to a maximum write- off amount of $3,000, or $1,500 (the net total of gains and losses for the year) if you are married and file separately. So if you have a loss in a single year of $100,000, it will take you 34 years to recoup the loss in tax reductions.

  So if a person is risking their own capital, I think it is completely fair to pay a lower rate on any gains that may occur.

• ‘It’s Not True’: Kansas Rep. Shoots Down Al Sharpton‘s ’Is it Fair’ Tax Mantra in Fiery Debate (Now with Beck Reaction)

  January 26, 2012 at 11:29am

  For Sharpton to begin to comprehend Romney’s tax return, he would have to know there are tax rates and there are real tax rates. There is the headline rate that everyone pays, and then there is the effective tax rate which is the true tax on your income. But that is probably asking too much of Rev. Al.

  Also, he would have to understand that because American tax rates are progressive, you don’t pay the same amount of tax on each dollar of income. As you get into higher income brackets, you pay higher tax on each dollar earned. This is called an increase in tax on every marginal dollar. It wouldn’t surprise me if Mike Bloomberg, John Kerry, or Warren Buffet paid less than or equal to Romney when it came to effective tax rates.

  Here is some simple math to explain it in plain English to Rev. Al: Suppose one makes $20,000 in a year and is taxed under the a progressive system. If you make 10,000/yr, you pay 10%. Make 20,000/yr, pay 25%. This person pays $1000 (10%) of the first $10,000 and 2500 (25%) of the second $10,000. The total tax liability is $3500, which when divided by the $20,000 of income and multiplied 100, is found to have an effective tax rate of 17.5%.

  Why isn’t Rev. Al asking the good people at the boards of education if it’s “fair” that a majority of the kids in school probably don’t understand basic mathematics? Who knows, maybe he’ll get around to doing that after he pays his back taxes. Miracle do happen.