Do rich people pay taxes?

Who says they don't pay tax?  Maybe some don't but I know many that do, including ours, and it is a lot.  

z31maniac said: How is that germane to the discussion? 

 

[Buford T Justice] The GotDamned Germans got nothin' to do with it [/Buford T Justice]

(sorry I watched Smokey and the Bandit a lot when I was growing up)

GameboyRMH said:

A see a lot of people saying that corporations don't pay taxes but merely pass them on to consumers. That's only true when there is perfectly inelastic demand for what they're selling:

https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~ref/econ101e.html

 

That's not relevant to the type of tax we are discussing. 

A sales tax is completely different to the consumer than a corporate income tax. Every one of us walk into stores every day, read price tags, then are content when the register rings up s higher price than the price tag once sales tax is added. None of us ever ask to see the income tax return of the businesses we deal with. 

A sales tax is not a tax to the business. It's a tax to the buyer, which the business collects on behalf of the government. There is no precedent for a Federal sales tax. Your article is irrelevant. 

Plus, there would be no reason for the business to absorb the cost to remain competitive. At the moment of implementation, every business would apply the tax to every sale, shrug their shoulders and say, "I'm sorry. The government makes me do it". And consumers would accept it. 

Enyar said:

Curtis said:

TL;DR

I think in general rich PEOPLE pay taxes.  Big corporations don't.  In fact, many large corporations receive money from the government.

2015 numbers from the treasury website indicate that $1.22T was given back in taxes which is bigger than the entire discretionary US budget for 2015 ($1.11T).

Its all legal and kosher with loopholes created by campaign contributions to buy the legislators, but if those big corps like WalMart, Apple, Kaiser Permanente, ExxonMobil, BP, and other corporations actually paid taxes like other "rich" people, we could have paid for everyone to get a 4-year degree, pay off all student loan debt, replace Flint's water infrastructure, AND have enough surplus to build Trump's mexi-phobia wall.

Our priorities are kinda whacked.

Why tax corporations at all? Tax the individuals that profit from these corporations.

Because they are profit-generating entities and could supply about 80% of the tax burden which could be shifted off of low-middle income households.  As it is now, these corporations make trillions and it isn't taxed while the little guy (like me) gets 20% of his pay sent straight to the IRS.

I'm all for capitalism and making money.  I work, I make money, I pay taxes.  Corporations also make money, they should pay taxes.  People laughed at Bernie when he said universal healthcare and free college, but if corporations actually paid their fair share of taxes, it would have funded everything "free" that Bernie wanted to implement with change leftover.  The reason he couldn't sell it to the people is because the left knew the tax burden would fall to them, and the right is so hung up on blue collar ethics and believing that you should be stiff, sore, stressed, maimed, damaged, or otherwise marginalized in the pursuit of your paycheck in order for it to have ethical value.