Help debunk this rightwing email: Tax Facts

[BlueEyedSon]

I know most of the answers (The "mansions" are Teresa's, the Kerrys file their taxes separately)... but is there a canned response online I can link to?


Tax Facts

Every year an independent tax watchdog group analyzes the average tax burden on Americans, and then
calculates the "Tax Freedom Day". This is the day after which the money you earn goes to you, not the
government.

This year, tax freedom day was April 11th. That's the earliest it has been since 1991. The latest day ever was
May 2nd, which occurred in 2000.

Notice anything special about those dates?

Today John Kerry gave a speech in which he claimed Americans are actually paying more taxes under Bush,
despite the tax cuts. He gave no explanation and provided no data for this claim.

Another interesting fact: Both George Bush and John Kerry are wealthy men.

Bush owns only one home, his ranch in Texas.

Kerry owns 4 mansions, all worth several million dollars. (His ski resort home in Idaho is an old barn brought
over from Europe in pieces. Not your average A-frame).

Bush paid $250,000 in taxes this year; Kerry paid $90,000. Does that sound right?

The man who wants to raise your taxes obviously has figured out a way to avoid paying his own.

Pass this on. Only 202 days until the election.

[Zen Democrat]

1. The Kerrys have a pre-nup. She has kids, you know.

Their finances are separate. She's a multi-millionaire -- he's not.

[rfranklin]

2. Bush stole his millions by selling influence and using government to

steal land from the rightful owners for his baseball stadium. His family has stolen billions from the Treasury of the USA through sweetheart deals and government funding of Carlyle Group's various military contractor companies. His grandfather financed Hitler and had his company confiscated under the Trading with the Enemy Act. His brother looted the Silverado Savings and Loan of about $1.5 billion.

As for the tax, I don't think that this counts all the increased local and state taxes that we are now paying due to the pullback in Federal funding. So it's just a shell game. Add those in and the tax burden for the average Joe has increased.

[EstimatedProphet]

3. From the desk of Karl Rove...

Have you checked Snopes yet?

[dorktv]

4. kerry has a lot less money then Bush...Bush's salary as

Prez is 400K and Kerry's is what 150K?

[TheDebbieDee]

5. John Kerry claimed Americans are........

actually paying more taxes under Bush. This is true, but I can't prove it. However, the following stands to reason:

Although Federal Income Taxes may have gone down, local personal property and real estate taxes have gone up in many areas - in an effort to recoup some of the revenues lost to local governments due to less federal funding of projects and programs.

[FloridaPat]

6. We're paying more taxes because the states had to raise taxes

to pay for items the Feds use to pay when they had higher taxes. Sales taxes, state income taxes, property taxes etc.

[AP]

13. And regardless of whether states/feds/locals have increased or decreased

total tax revenues, they're definitely allocating much more of the tax burden on people who have lower incomes.

Large businesses get huge tax property breaks, and individuals don't. Sales tax burdens people who spend a larger % of their income on depreciating taxed goods the most. Having top tax brackets that start at low levels is a boon for high income earners. Taxing earned income much higher than unearned income (like dividends and cap gains) is a huge boon to people how get most of their money from something other than earned income.

Kerry is totally right about this, and the RW has nowhere to hide on this issue.

[salib]

7. oops - delete

[BlueEyedSon]

8. I love DU, you guys are the BEST!!!!

[Beaverhausen]

9. Snopes sez:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/kerry/homes.asp

[salib]

10. There is an interesting point at a UK "Tax Freedom Day" page

They make the point that if you must include borrowing in the calculation, since that must be paid through higher taxes in the future. I do not know if I can come up with what that would mean exactly, but a rough calc says that already he has racked up an additional 157 + 378 + 521(estimated for 04) = 1,056 billion in money that must be paid off (actually, if you assume that Clinton's SURPLUSES has continued, then an additional 132 x 3 = 396 billion not saved). That is a total of nearly 1.5 trillion more in taxes in the future in only 3 years of *'s presidency (needed to be paid back by raising money, i.e., taxes)! That is almost the entire tax cut over more than 10 years! Thus, another year and we will have the REAL tax freedom day that includes debt incurred increasing, and quickly!

[BlueEyedSon]

12. You screwed up and pointed me at a UK tax page, huh?

i already sent it to my freeper friend, im doomed!

[salib]

15. You are right!

I deleted it as quickly as I could, but obviously not soon enough. However, it is where I got the idea for the inclusion of deficits and debt in the tax free day calculation. I need to be more careful, and I apologize deeply.

[BlueEyedSon]

18. No problem, I appreciate what you were trying to do.

Sh!t happens!

[AP]

11. Only reason W paid more in taxes is because he has higher earned income

which is taxed higher than anything. And this is the only time Bush will EVER earn income in his entire life. Before he was president and after he leaves office he'll go right back to making money from capital gains, which are barely taxed.

W's 2003 earned income was 400k. About 90K of that is taxed at 35%. Kerry's earned income was about 150K. His wife has no earned income. The highest rate he was taxed on anything was 28%. The rest of their income was taxed at 15% or less (cap gains, dividends, etc.)

Here are the 2003 tables for Married Filing Jointly

10% up to $14,000
15% up to $56,800
25% up to $114,650
28% up to $174,700
33%* up to $311,950
35% over $311,950

It's ridiculous that we tax earned income as much as we do in America, but the reason Bush is paying more in taxes while he's president is because the Republicans have created this situation where we put all the burden on earned income. As I said above, Bush is suffering these four years so that he and his cronies can rake it in.

[doubleplusgood]

14. "private" taxes have increased under Bush

While "public" taxes may have been reduced somewhat for the average taxpayer, what about the "private" taxes that have been increased dramatically thanks to Bushco ?

- Electric & gas bills, courtesy of Enron, Reliant Energy, etc.
- Gasoline prices
- Health Insurance (house & auto, too)
- Cable TV rates

The real question should be, how much money do you have left in your pocket after paying ALL "taxes", public & private ?

[Vickers]

16. "Bush owns only one home, his ranch in Texas."

How many thousands of acres is that ranch? How long has it been in operation? How many heads of cattle does he have?

These are the kinds of questions I ask when my dipshit RW acquaintances bring this crap up.

Oh, that PIG RANCH of 1600 acres (chump change when you are talking Texas ranches), was built in 2000, and is worth $1.2 million, hardly your typical rancher's home.

I love it when he calls Kerry a rich Northeasterner, which is exactly what he is (but he's more of a wimp, ducking out of the war and all).

Chickenshit chickenhawk, like most RWers.

[jayavarman]

17. I believe the tax figures are correct (from what I remember from the news)

As to why there is such a disparity . . . . we would have to be accountants to know.

[BlueEyedSon]

19. No we don't. We just have to use Google and our brains.

Were liberals, not idiots!

The disparity is that Teresa is the one with the dough. She owns the houses and has an ENORMOUS passive income, and files separately.

I would bet that Kerry & Bush's tax percentage is about the same, meaning that Bush (+ Laura) MAKES MUCH MORE than Kerry.

[jayavarman]

20. Ok, I took your advice & googled it.

They file taxes seperately & Teresa got an extention & will not have to file until oct. 15.

Looks like the 90k tax bill in question was 100% Kerry's alone..

When you file an extention, as Teresa did, you still have to pay estimated taxes- Here's a bit I found on hers in 2002:

Mrs. Heinz Kerry, whose net worth Forbes magazine estimated to be $550 million in 2002, reportedly earned $5.115 million last year in interest and dividend income. Now, that comes to less than 1 percent of her 2002 net worth. She paid $587,000 in estimated federal income taxes. That amounts to 11.5 percent of her reported income and one-tenth of 1 percent of her estimated net worth.

Looks like she's paying a whole lot in taxes.