|
hmm, interesting, if a bit of a brow-furrowing read. i need to work on my way marginal tax-rule-parsing skills, for reasons that are currently deeply unfortunate to my finances. so struggling with that was helpful.
i'm questioning whether earned-income tax credits can actually take your tax liability into surplus status: you seem to be saying that in the first instance the woman's tax writeoffs actually get her a refund as though she'd made more money than she actually did? i have no evidence to disbelieve that, but i just find it astonishing the tax code would be put together that way.
but the upshot of what you're posting seems to be that someone whose income is in the lower-middle-class range -- 30s, 40s -- has a tax burden far outstripping someone whose tax burden is negligible due to poverty. the egghead in me wants to say that any sum seems significant when compared to zero, but i actually agree that the middle-class tax burden is oppressive. government at this moment is huge and is consuming lots of tax money, and despite reams of happy-talk about tax cuts, the middle class seems by and large to be paying for it. the question is, why? what is the government spending it on?
|