You have not proven it to be false as of yet.
Originally Posted by WTF
I have proven it to be false in my post above. I'll be more explicit. The Vox video says they assumed the employer's share of social security and FICA, being 7.65% of gross wages, is actually borne by the employee. So they assume all employees pay a 15.3% payroll tax.
How much sense does that make? The 7.65% is a cost that's actually mostly passed onto the consumer who pays higher prices. And it's the employer who pays his share of the tax, not the employee.
You take 7.65% off the tax rate paid on salaries and wages by people making less than $142,800 per year (social security income cap) and that curve in the Vox video is going to look a lot more progressive.
It would make a lot more sense to add the 7.65% to taxes paid by the billionaire businessmen. And small businessmen in the top 1%. If they have a lot of employees, those payroll taxes will exceed their adjusted gross income (AGI), that is, their pre-tax income on their tax returns.
And those businessmen pay sales taxes to the state too. How about moving that number around so that you show it being paid by the businessman too, instead of the consumer.
Some of these billionaire businessmen are paying many times their AGI on payroll taxes and sales taxes alone. So we've got a crazy progressive income tax system where many businessmen pay multiples of their AGI in taxes while most of the rest of us get off pretty lightly.
Does this make sense? Well, I don't know, but it makes more sense than saying the employer's contribution to FICA and social security is borne by the employee.
This is probably the tip of the iceberg. Saez and Guzman undoubtedly twist the numbers around any way they can to try to make their case for making America a second rate country through sky high taxation.