Did you see you this article? What about the fact that GE paid zero in income tax on enormous profits and then received a return of millions of dollars on top of that. This is a fact.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2016/06/tw...te-the-racket/
Progressive tax is calculated percentage wise (in other words, according to the amount). The more a person makes, the higher the amount. You didn't tell me the amount of the capital gains, so I have no idea why the tax rate was that high. Same thing for the dividends amount. In other words, if I make $2 million, the rate would be higher percentage wise. I'm sure there is a cap at one point, but I don't know what it is. The thing that really infuriates me is the above article and the fact that corporations like GE paid zero dollars in income tax and made enormous profits. They even received a return of at least a million or so. I saw the article on another board, but don't have it on hand right now. It's actually true. I don't understand why this practice is even legal.
Those are the taxes I'm really concerned with. Maybe Clinton can ease the taxes a little more on higher income people, but cut out loopholes for these multi-national corporations. That would really help with national deficit and build up our safety net at the same time. Here is a list of those corporations that I mentioned, the worst offenders:
https://berniesanders.com/wp-content...ateDodgers.pdf
Originally Posted by SassySue
Sorry for the lack of courtesy. This is a subject I'm passionate about. Crony capitalism has resulted in lots and lots of tax dodges for SOME corporations and SOME super wealthy individuals, who have armies of lobbyists, tax accountants and tax lawyers. As such, you end up with some companies paying very low tax rates, even though the United Arab Emirates is the only country in the world with a higher marginal tax rate. But you have many more companies in the USA paying tax rates among the highest in the world. This adversely effects economic growth, jobs and wages in the USA. The rest of the world has lower tax rates and less complexity in the way they tax corporations.
You're taking examples like GE and Boeing and applying them to all of American business and that's just not right. See this for a more complete list:
https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/inve...tax-rate-paid/
And as JackieS points out, add property taxes, sales taxes, state income taxes, alcohol, gasoline, tobacco, communication, medicare and social security, severance taxes, etc., and the rate in many instances is way above 50%. Governments are in many instances taking over 50% of the pie. It's crowding out the private sector, which no longer generates the economic, job and wage growth that it used to.
The rates I provided in the earlier post are the maximum marginal rates on investment income, NOT including state income tax. I don't know where the rates kick in, but it's certainly at less than $1 million/year.
Again, the U.S. tax system is the most progressive in the OECD. The reason it's so progressive is because that makes it easier for the politicians to grant special favors to special interests, like your example of GE, and still raise enough money to keep us from going bankrupt for the time being. There's a strong argument for a flatter, fairer, simpler less progressive tax system based on lower and fewer tax rates, or replacing part or all of the income tax with a value added or sales tax (with mechanisms to reduce or eliminate the tax on the poorer among us). You do that, you'll see better economic growth, better private sector wages and more jobs, and more prosperity for more people, and very possibly less inequality as the crony capitalists are put out of business.