[willcipriano]

They do, and it's progressive, but the trick is so do the rich because they make all their money on capital gains and that's a lower rate. It's really the middle class to honest small business owner level that gets hosed on income taxes, make enough money to pay a good bit of taxes but not enough to have exotic tax shelters and the really creative accountants.

[Pigalowda]

These tools blabbering about “tax the rich” don’t have real jobs, assets, or a brain. The only thing the political class will be OK with doing is raising taxes on the middle - and that’s it. People who call for higher taxes with our two party system are my enemy. They can eff off.

And raising capital gains taxes? What so they can screw over the middle again when they retire and have to intermittently sell off? It’s absurd.

[Danjoe4]

95% of people are astoundingly ignorant of how our tax system actually works. Once you get into a moderately advanced investment/tax strategy and start looking into forming an S Corp, tax advantaged accounts, etc. you realize how the rich really avoid taxes.

"Tax the rich" only gets politicians to move around the income brackets and punish high-earning, honest professionals like doctors, lawyers, and engineers. Numbskulls who have never even filed a 1040 can't comprehend that the mega rich do not derive the majority of their wealth from income.

We should simplify our tax system to eliminate sophisticated tax strategies and level the playing field. Income tax should be reduced overall.

[Detrytus]

Income tax should be abolished completely, since it is immoral. Government should derive their tax income from taxing corporations. And the best way to avoid any "tax optimization" schemes is to tax revenue, not profit. You run a business? 1-5% of your revenue goes to IRS, and you can do whatever you want with the rest. This would also have a nice side effect of reducing cost of accounting services since without tax avoidance schemes 90% of accounting work goes away.