[smtddr]

In comparison to what? And exactly what income-levels paid what percentage of that? Did the poor & middle class paid 98% of of that? Did the rich & powerful use all kinds of crazy tax-loop-holes to avoid paying trillions? Cost of living/retirement in what parts of America?....maybe 19 billion is a drop in the ocean, maybe not.

19 billion tells me nothing.

[harryh]

Well, roughly 2.6 million Americans died in 2014. I've read that 1 in 500 estates gets taxed so that's about 5200 estates.

19 billion / 5200 = an mean of ~3.65 million per taxed estate. That's all I know off the top of my head.

In general I've found the trope of "the rich don't pay taxes because of their fancy lawyers and accountants" generally turns out to be false.

[smtddr]

>>In general I've found the trope of "the rich don't pay taxes because of their fancy lawyers and accountants" generally turns out to be false.

It's not that they don't pay taxes at all, but they definitely pay less than they should. http://money.cnn.com/2013/03/04/news/economy/buffett-secreta...

There's no way you can believe otherwise, a millionaire can afford all kinds of financial experts to work 40hrs/week to move money all over the place to avoid taxes. It's unreasonable to think they don't (ab)use that ability.

[washadjeffmad]

From 2003 to 2013, the top marginal and capital gains tax rates were 35% and 15% respectively, and the top 0.01% of taxpayers faced an average tax rate of effectively 25%. The last time rates were that low was before WW2, leading up to a period we remember as the Great Depression. During the nation's most prosperous decades, those rates were consistently above 40%, and leading up to them, ranged between 60% and 40%.

The issue isn't that the mega-wealthy pay no taxes, but that the value of the taxable income of a handful of people vastly supersedes that of most of that of the rest of the population. In essence, lower tax rates didn't fix anything about the economy unless you thought taxes were the problem and provided no overall boost to the economic security or general prosperity of the public.

So when GE Capital pays no corporate taxes and someone points that out, you're likely to hear that they pay those taxes through the number of people they employ. This is deceptive, since a legitimate small business would be paying both taxes. That entities like GE Capital exist is the trope that you need to dispel. Or did those estate taxes not come from the earnings of mom and pop shop owners and people who put in their 40 quarters with a little wise investing?

[asmithmd1]

Taxes are for the 99% The 1% can and do pay lawyers to get out of paying much. Check out this loophole - it is complicated but basically if you can afford to set up one of these trusts you can give money to your kids tax free:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grantor_retained_annuity_trust

[sumedh]

> "the rich don't pay taxes because of their fancy lawyers and accountants" generally turns out to be false.

So why does Buffett keep on saying that he pays low taxes compared to his secretary?