[Speed Gibson,
Wednesday April 25, 2007 at 10:45am]
What's Your Net Worth?
First, King has penned one of his best ever at SCSU. He takes on yet another Star Tribune editorial in favor of still higher income taxes, dovetailing it with some classical thoughts of what it once meant to be middle class.
Most of the justification for raising the top income tax rates stems from a tax incidence study that shows the upper 10 percent of income earners actually pay slightly less as a percentage than some lower deciles. So not only will Minnesota quietly allow the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) to ensnare even more such taxpayers, a "super AMT" fourth bracket will finally cancel out all those loopholes, shelters, tax dodges and "sweetheart" deals!
In other words, the posted rates don't really matter. If at the end of the year you haven't paid what the DFL subjectively thinks you should have paid, don't worry, you soon will. Apparently your worth as a citizen is strictly a function of how much treasure you send to St. Paul. The jobs you provide, the investments you make, all that philanthropy and public service don't count. Not for the DFL, anyway.
Most of the justification for raising the top income tax rates stems from a tax incidence study that shows the upper 10 percent of income earners actually pay slightly less as a percentage than some lower deciles. So not only will Minnesota quietly allow the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) to ensnare even more such taxpayers, a "super AMT" fourth bracket will finally cancel out all those loopholes, shelters, tax dodges and "sweetheart" deals!
In other words, the posted rates don't really matter. If at the end of the year you haven't paid what the DFL subjectively thinks you should have paid, don't worry, you soon will. Apparently your worth as a citizen is strictly a function of how much treasure you send to St. Paul. The jobs you provide, the investments you make, all that philanthropy and public service don't count. Not for the DFL, anyway.