Saturday, October 18, 2008

Beat the Press Archive | The American Prospect: Joe the Plumber would pay a max. $900/year in taxes

According to Dean Baker of the Center for Economic Policy and Research, if Joe the Plumber netted $250,000, he would pay an additional $900 in taxes per year.  If he makes more, he would pay more, if he makes less, he would pay less.

Seems to me that is fair.  $900 will not prevent Joe from hiring others, and it would not prevent Joe from conducting his business.

This is fair.  We need to start putting these soundbytes into perspective so people can make informed decisions.

Much of last night's presidential debate centered on "Joe the Plumber," Joe Wurzelbacher, a plumber who Barack Obama met while campaigning in Ohio. According to the New York Times, Mr. Wurzelbacher says that he is planning to buy a plumbing business that has profits of between $250,000 and $280,000 a year. While this income would put Mr. Wurzelbacher above the threshold where he could expect to pay higher taxes under Senator Obama's tax plan, the increase in his tax bill would be relatively modest. Under Senator Obama's plan, the tax on income above $250,000 would increase by 3 percentage points from 33 percent to 36 percent. This means that Mr. Wurzelbacher could expect to see his tax bill rise by between $0-$900, assuming that this plumbing business would be his entire taxable income. If he has additional taxable income, then he would see a larger increase in his taxes. It would have been useful for reporters to explain the extent to which Joe the Plumber would see his taxes increase under Senator Obama's tax proposal. It is unlikely that this tax increase will seriously impair his plans for his business as Senator McCain implied.

Beat the Press Archive | The American Prospect

2 comments:

Ted said...

OBAMA + DEM CONG = USA RIP

Ted said...

OBAMA + DEM CONG = USA RIP