(Untitled)

[argentlion]

Guys I am curious, tons of commercials have been promising “love and tax breaks” for the middle class. Actually a lot of talk has gone into the plight of the middle class. I am just curious to see who my intrepid readers think these middle class people are. For purposes of my example let’s assume are talking the household income of a family with

Comments

[lady_guenievre]

I filled out the poll, but I'm not sure that this can be diagrammed so neatly - given the crazy difference in costs between various places.

[argentlion]

I appreciate you taking the time to fill out the poll, you make an excellent point, however we are talking about tax breaks promised to a particular "class" a person who makes $60K a year in New York, pays the same federal taxes as a man who makes $60K a year in Mobile Al, although they have could be living radically different lives. I have yet to see a plan from my government or from a candidate that discusses altering tax code to consider your zip code in your assessment, and since they are promising Tax breaks to Americans who are middle class I wondered who these people might be, and I also wondered what would others consider to be middle class?

[soucyn]

I just answered as per where I live. So, I figured for the Triangle area of NC.

There is a bit of regulation to your federal income tax based on where you live. You can deduct your state taxes, so people in NYC who pay more state taxes than NC, would be able to deduct more from their federal taxable income.

[colin_g]

sorry, that's not "regulation". In fact that's worse. Mr. AL60K would get a lower deduction than Mr. NYC60K and thus Mr. AL60K would pay more in federal taxes that go disproportionally away from his community and into the larger urban areas. Why should Mr. AL60K have to subsidize Mr. NYC60K by redistributing his wealth to these mammuth cities who've never seen a tax they couldn't get behind?

[soucyn]

I was under the impression that money went the other way. The predominantly urban, higher income per capitia, North East tends to pay a lot in federal taxes and see's less of it come back (again, per person) than do people in the rural, lower income, South.

[argentlion]

Interesting point let’s see if that adds some equilibrium to “where you live” question cause I have no idea

[soucyn]

Obviously, $675 is not going to cover the cost of living difference between LA and Mobile. The idea wasn't to totally offset regional differences, just to make up a bit for state income taxes. If you look at their total tax bills (state + federal):

LA = $13505
AL = $11480

So, our man in the land of cotton pays $2025 less total taxes, just a greater proportion of it goes to Uncle Sam rather than Uncle Buba.