There are fewer millionaires in America today – can you hear the celebration at the Blue Heron farm on Martha’s Vineyard where the Obama family is spending someone’s millions?
Obama at Blue Heron Farm - 2009
Pullout quote:
For the past three decades, the political left has obsessed about income inequality. As the economy experienced one of the largest and lengthiest economic booms in history from 1982-2007, the left moaned that the gains went to yacht club members.
Well, if equality of income is the priority, liberals should be thrilled with the last four years.
Wall Street Journal (great article – read it all here):
In 2007, 390,000 tax filers reported adjusted gross income of $1 million or more and paid $309 billion in taxes. In 2009, there were only 237,000 such filers, a decline of 39%. Almost four of 10 millionaires vanished in two years, and the total taxes they paid in 2009 declined to $178 billion, a drop of 42%.
Those with $10 million or more in reported income fell to 8,274 from 18,394 in 2007, a 55% drop. As a result, their tax payments tanked by 51%. These disappearing millionaires go a long way toward explaining why federal tax revenues have sunk to 15% of GDP in recent years. The loss of millionaires accounts for at least $130 billion of the higher federal budget deficit in 2009…
The millionaires who are left still pay a mountain of tax. Those who make $1 million accounted for about 0.2% of all tax returns but paid 20.4% of income taxes in 2009. Those with adjusted gross income above $200,000 a year were just under 3% of tax filers but paid 50.1% of the $866 billion in total personal income taxes. This means the top 3% paid more than the bottom 97%. Yet the 3% are the people that President Obama claims don’t pay their fair share. Before the recession, the $200,000 income group paid 54.5% of the income tax.
What does it take to make believers of tax and spenders? We raise tax brackets on those who produce and hire and, it’s simple, they will hire less, and what they produce will cost more, which affects the sale of what they produce. Here’s a example:
In 2008, Maryland added four new income tax brackets, including a top rate of 6.25% on income over $1 million. (This is in addition to county income taxes, which average 2.98%.)
As we and others have noted before, the Comptroller of Maryland has reported that the number of “millionaire” returns tumbled sharply between 2007 and 2008, a 30% drop in filers and 22% drop in declared income. Rather than income taxes from this group rising by $106 million, they fell by $257 million.
The recession is certainly a contributor: everyone is earning less. But the Comptroller did an interesting additional analysis: how many people filed as millionaires before the tax increase, then did not file at all the following year? The Wall Street Journal explains the findings:
One-in-eight millionaires who filed a Maryland tax return in 2007 filed no return in 2008. Some died, but the others presumably changed their state of residence. (Hint to the class warfare crowd: A lot of rich people have two homes.)…
Thanks in part to its soak-the-rich theology, Maryland still has a $2 billion deficit and Montgomery County is $760 million in the red.
In the meantime, the personal wealth of Congress grows significantly. (Take a look at the photo above. Does it get any sillier than that?)
Linked by Jimmy Bise at The Sundries Shack – Thank You!
Linked by Small dead animals – thank you!
Linked by Bookworm Room, who has met a tax she doesn’t mind paying.
Posted by Maggie @ Maggie’s Notebook
Thrilled? Lord no, who are they going to blame and who are they going to tax? Cavuto had a great panel discussion on this subject this AM. The leftist on the panel were livid, blaming of course Bush’s tax cuts. You know the same ones that Obama has kept in place now for two years.
afticker recently posted..Saturday Song time
ticker, It hardly makes sense to blame tax cuts on millionaires no longer being millionaires. Losing millionaires is not the same as a lack of revenue. Sure revenue will be down, but we didn’t lose millionaires because taxes have been kept lower.
Maggie recently posted..Shane Bauer 8 Year Sentence in Iran: Josh Fattal 8 Year Sentence in Iran
This is important information, Maggie. Thanks for posting this.
Jim at Conservatives on Fire recently posted..Guest Saturday with A Conservative Teacher
Thanks Jim, and thanks for coming by.
Maggie recently posted..Shane Bauer 8 Year Sentence in Iran: Josh Fattal 8 Year Sentence in Iran
[...] be embarrassed about how much they spend, especially when much of it is other people’s money.Maggie’s Notebook has more.google_ad_client = "pub-1395656889568144"; /* 300×250, created 8/11/08 */ google_ad_slot = [...]
[...] countries find it in their interests to stay. And while we’re at it, we might also examine why millionaires flee some states for others.I think we need an unwritten rule. If there is a law anywhere that prevents a woman dying from [...]
Again Maggie, you inform… thank you so much for your amazing blog.. Man I hate that word.. lol
David Lemon recently posted..A Traditional Hula Dancer – Fine Tuning
Good catch. I would however argue that the statement “We raise tax brackets on those who produce and hire and, it’s simple, they will hire less,…” is misleading. There’s a blurring of personal Income Tax and Corporate Tax returns there. Individuals form corporations for that very reason, amongst others, ie. tax relief.
This is just sick…America marching right down the road to serfdom!
Manhattan Beach Realtor recently posted..Stocks Crashing, How Is Manhattan Beach Real Estate Holding Up?
[...] past Saturday Maggie, of the Maggie’s Notebook blog, ran a piece about a Wall Street Journal article that I think deserves more attention. [...]
[...] as the recession has shown, the fact that we have fewer rich people does not mean we have fewer poor people. Leftist thinkers subscribe to the belief that “the [...]