Obama vs. McCain, whose tax policy will benefit you?

Both Obama and McCain have tax cuts in store for America; Obama will shift the tax burden so the vast majority of Americans will pay less and the rich closer to their fair share.Obama will let the Bush tax cuts expire (which is not the equivalent of a tax increase unless you live in Bizarro world and reason with Bizarro logic), while McCain wants to continue wasting resouces on handouts for the rich.  Here's who much you will save under either Obama or McCain (note that there many other variables you need to take into consideration when making up your mind about tax policy, e.g. a tax cuts may save you $2,000 a year, but eliminate a program that is of greater value to you - such as having better roads to drive on, living in society where the poor don't go homeless, etc...). Keeping in mind that you shouldn't favor a tax policy simply based on how much cash you save, here is the direct effect either Obama's or McCain's tax plan will have on your wallet:

If you make $0 to $20,000 you will save:

• $567 under Obama
• $19 under McCain

If you make $20,000 to $38,000 (about 40% of American households make less than $38,000) you will save

• $892 under Obama
• $113 under McCain

If you make $38,000 to $66,000 (note the median household income is $46,000 as of 2007, more than 2-thirds of Americans make less than $66,000), you, along with the vast majority of Americans will save,

• $1,042 under Obama
• $319 under McCain

If you make $66,000 to $112,000, along with about 87% of Americans who make less than $110,000, you will save

• $1,290 under Obama
• $1,009 under McCain

If you make $112,000 to $161,000 you will save

• $2,204 under Obama
• $2,614 under McCain

If make $161,000 to $227,000, putting you in at least the top ca. 6-7% of American households), you will save

• $2,780 under Obama
• $4,380 under McCain

If are at least among the top 2.5% and make between $227,000 to $603,000 you will pay $19 more under Obama and save $7,781 under McCain

If you are among the 1%, but not 0.1%, i.e. semi-rich (I usually use $1,000,000 per year as the cut-off for what I call "rich"), making $603,000 and $2,900,000 , you will pay $115,974 more under Obama and $45,361 under McCain

Finally, if you are super-rich, making $2,900,000 or more (only about 0.2%-0.1% of Americans do), you will pay $701,885 more under Obama and save $269, 364 under McCain (note that many in this group make far more than $2.9 million - the Fortune 400, for example, had an average income of $214 million in 2007)

Simply put, unless you are among the bottom 99.2%, you will pay less taxes, less so under Obama if you make less than $112,000 and about as much as under McCain if you are in the bottom 94% and make less than $161,000. If you make more than $603,000 you will pay more under Obama, but perhaps you have a concience and favor poverty relief, universal health care and a good education for everyone, and are thus willing to see the Bush tax cuts expire.

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (2)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

...
written by Grassroot Vizir, June 25, 2008

Interesting stuff. But watch the Republicans come out using the Overtaxing Democrat Bogeyman image to scare voters again this year. Can't blame them, Republicans have been very talented at persuading voters to vote against their own economic interests.

report abuse

vote down

vote up

Votes: +0

...
written by Glennsopinions, June 26, 2008

I am surprised that you did not run the numbers to see if that is really the case before you made the post. A quick trip to Turbo Tax shows that a person making under $20,000 doesn't even pay $567 in taxes, so you are once again talking about income re-distribution. Of course, all your numbers depend on the individuals deductions on how much they will really save or pay. Next a quick trip to the IRS site and seeing how many tax returns are filed in the various income groups you list and the proposed Obama tax law changes, there isn't enough tax being taken out from the top 1% to cover the savings listed in your post. More will have to be raised from somewhere. And pulling out of Iraq won't do it either. And of course, the amount of taxes a person really pays depends on their individual tax situation. Whenever you create a new tax, you create an incentive to avoid it.

I have no problem with finding ways to make the tax code fairer as long as it does not impact business and jobs for the little people. But Obama is looking at raising total taxes to pay for new programs and to do that, his numbers don't pencil out (at least what numbers I can find, he is pretty vague), but with 58 cents (Investors Business Daily, Wall Street Journal, Forbes Magazine) of every dollar in the economy having something to do with a tax of some kind, do we really need to raise taxes? The growth of government has been at more than double the combination of the inflation rate / population increase for many years. We probably should spend what we have better before raising any more.

report abuse

vote down

vote up

Votes: -1