Comment on What is the argument for making poor/working class folks shoulder the burden of taxes?

scarabic@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

The standard deduction should be at least the median income…? Wouldn’t that mean that half of people would pay no income tax?

You might say this is what we should do, but I think it’s unreasonable to say that it’s a total head scratcher that we don’t already do this.

If you earn $40k and the first $13k is untaxed, then you’re paying no taxes on about the first third of your income. And from there you begin paying in the lowest bracket.

If you make $100k, and the first $13k is untaxed, that’s the first 13% of your income, not 33%. And some of your income will be taxed at levels higher than anything the $40k earner pays. I just fail to see how this is placing the burden on the poor. Is structurally doing the exact opposite and giving them the most breaks.

I’d probably agree that the floor on the deduction should come up, and we should raise taxes on extreme wealth to make it up. But at least in its most essential form, income tax is already progressive.

So I don’t really get your question.

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