Tax Up-Date

The trouble w/ rich people & taxes.

The previously unreported study estimates that taxpayers whose true income was between $500,000 and $1 million a year understated their adjusted gross incomes by 21 percent overall in 2001, compared to an 8 percent underreporting rate for those earning $50,000 to $100,000 and even lower rates for those earning less. (The "net misreporting rate" as the IRS calls it, includes both underreported income and inflated deductions.) In all, because of their higher noncompliance rates, those with true incomes of $200,000 or more received 25 percent of all income, but accounted for 40 percent of net underreported income and 42 percent of underreported tax in 2001, the new analysis finds.

Note well: That was in 2001, before the Bush Admin.'s plans to redistribute income upward & entitle the filthy rich to continue their cheating ways. It is therefore this web log's opinion that tax increases on the upper crust should be proportional to the amount they already cheat us. Plus a few percentage points for punishment. Sounds fair to us. Assuming we don't choose to feed them all to our pets.