The middle class referred to in the article is middle class of US. middle class of the bay area, might be a totally different story.<p>The article is basically saying, those who aren't paying any income taxes are quite happy with their income tax rate. Meanwhile, anyone who lives in a more expensive part of the country like CA/ Bay area is paying higher taxes: 30%-40% for most people, not counting all the taxes paid on the employers side as well as all the taxes you pay with the remainder of your paycheck.<p>Still, you might think, that's enough to live off. But, if you are working in high tech with a decent salary, you've only got so many years before you get aged out of the work force ~ 50 according to the other article: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/stressful-lives-of-older-tech-workers-2015-11?_lrsc=e525de47-81f1-48b4-bc62-2a1e336af828" rel="nofollow">http://www.businessinsider.com/stressful-lives-of-older-tech...</a>.
I am always amazed by the number of people who obsess on tax payments in isolation.<p>Even though my taxes are quite low here in California when compared to other places I've lived (France, Germany, Australia), I find overall it costs more to live here. Taxes + medical expense total more here than in those other countries. Fuel is cheaper but I have to drive more to get around easily. The schools are dreadful (and Palo Alto schools are supposedly the best in CA) so I paid a lot to get around that. Telecom is expensive (well, cheaper than AUS!). Etc. Not to mention that a strawberry doesn't taste like strawberry.<p>Americans seem to put up with huge transaction costs (both in time and money) to get some "savings" which seems backwards.
- The middle class should get a tax cut.<p>- Tax code loopholes used by the rich to pay nothing should be simplified / removed.<p>- Decamillionaires and up should pay more than zero, i.e., Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) isn't working except to snare the upper-middle class.<p>- Corporate income taxes are far too low, and need to return to 1950's levels.<p>Unfortunately, doing any of this requires difficult-but-worthy fundamental changes first: campaign finance reforms, lobbyist reforms and basically a purge of corrupt politicians in DC.
I like the repeal of AMT. Silicon Valley's equity options offerings just got a lot more attractive!<p>I don't like removing the state tax deduction from federal tax. With federal income tax not being marginal anymore it is the real percentage deal, and then you have to throw state tax on top of that? Yikes thats a big tax increase.<p>I LOVE the lowered corporate flat tax for entities. For some reason he throws in pass through entities like single member LLCs, which suggests that all the personal income tax brackets are a complete red herring since anyone can just form an LLC and get taxed at 20% instead. How is that not the main discussion?<p>It could all be balanced by the trillions in repatriation. Even though the US government could not count on getting trickled down tax revenues from all that money back in the economy, they could count on a lot of being parked right back in US treasuries, which is basically the same money in a different account.
I'm middle class and long ago soured on the tax vs deduction games. Better government would lead to more confidence that I'm not financing corruption. My perennial view, since I first understood what taxation was, has been dour. No event has changed that one bit.
HN has a fair amount of international readership, so I'll ask:<p>It's my impression that the US government is fairly incompetent by first-world standards. I'm not just talking about the presidency, but about the total overall governance. Is that accurate? Or is it just that US news reports US problems more than they report problems in, say, Netherlands or Switzerland, so I hear about our problems and don't hear about theirs?
I want a tax cut, thank you very much. The fact that this is from a publication owned by an entrepreneur famous for giving his company a billion tax cut is somewhat ironic.
To be in the 30%+ tax brackets you would need an income of about $200k. The highest federal tax bracket is 39.6% so I'm not sure how you'd be in a 40% tax bracket. Additionally you'd need to be making much more than $200k to have an effective tax rate over 30%.<p>If you're concerned about state taxes, well, nobody is forcing you to live in that particular state. I'm not sure what your point is but even in SF if you can live off of $200k+ a year you're leading a fairly excessive life on average.