Taxes By State - 2011

Taxes by state

• The sales tax seems to be more politically acceptable than the income tax.  ~Raymond C. Scheppach
• Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a refund from the IRS, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with. ~Author unknown, from a Washington Post word contest
• People try to live within their income so they can afford to pay taxes to a government that can't live within its income.  ~Robert Half
• A fine is a tax for doing something wrong.  A tax is a fine for doing something right.  ~Author Unknown
• Did you ever notice that when you put the words "The" and "IRS" together, it spells "THEIRS?" ~Author Unknown

How does your state measure up?  The first column is highlighted in blue if there is no income tax. In the second and third column, I highlighted the states with the lowest tax rates. 

I can't wait to move to Texas. They have a lower sales tax then Indiana, a lower gas tax than Indiana, and no state income tax. :o)  It will feel like a got a raise.

I Hate Taxes!

I'm sitting here working on our taxes.  This is not an enjoyable process for me at all.  We usually do them ourselves because we are too cheap to pay someone to do them for us.  We were hoping to use our refund to pay off some debt.  It looks like this year we are going to get a small refund from State and we are going to owe to Federal.   I guess we can just think of it as us doing our part to "spread the wealth around."  I think for next year we are going to change our W-4, so more gets withheld out of our checks.  Sears never seems to take our enough.  Apparently, we didn't take out enough extra in 2010.  It also didn't help that we apparently jumped into the next tax bracket.  I am looking forward to one day moving to Texas where there is no income tax.
But I guess I can be thankful that we pay taxes because that means we have a job.

Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth. Proverbs 10:4

Why does a slight tax increase cost you two hundred dollars and a substantial tax cut save you thirty cents? ~Peg Bracken

“You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that, my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.” --Dr. Adrian Rogers

Source
"In 2009, roughly 47% of households, or 71 million, will not owe any federal income tax, according to estimates by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.
Some in that group will even get additional money from the government because they qualify for refundable tax breaks (aka. the Unearned Income Tax Credit Welfare check)."

Fun Tax Day Quotes

The Wealthy are Evil and Must be Punished

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for lunch and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

The ten men eat in the café every day and seem quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. “Since you are all such good customers, he said, “I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily lunch by $20. Lunch for the ten now cost just $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still eat free. However, what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his “fair share?” They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. However, if they subtracted that from everybody’s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to eat his lunch. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill by roughly the same bracket of earnings, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so:

The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% saving s).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before And the first four continued to eat free. However, once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

“I only got a dollar out of the $20”, declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,” but he got $10!”
“Yeah, that’s right”, exclaimed the fifth man. “I only saved a dollar, too. It’s unfair that he got ten times more than I!”

“That’s true!” shouted the seventh man. “Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!”

“Wait a minute,” yelled the first four men in unison. “We didn’t get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!”

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next day the tenth man didn’t show up for lunch, so the nine sat down and had lunch without him. However, when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start eating overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics, University of Georgia

Fun Tax Day Quotes

If you make any money, the government shoves you in the creek once a year with it in your pockets, and all that don't get wet you can keep. ~Will Rogers

When there's a single thief, it's robbery. When there are a thousand thieves, it's taxation. ~Vanya Cohen

Taxation with representation ain't so hot either. ~Gerald Barzan

Taxes, after all, are dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society. ~Franklin D. Roosevelt

The taxpayer - that's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination. ~Ronald Reagan

America is a land of taxation that was founded to avoid taxation. ~Laurence J. Peter

I'm proud to pay taxes in the United States; the only thing is, I could be just as proud for half the money. ~Arthur Godfrey

The United States has a system of taxation by confession. ~Hugo Black

Why does a slight tax increase cost you two hundred dollars and a substantial tax cut save you thirty cents? ~Peg Bracken

Did you ever notice that when you put the words "The" and "IRS" together, it spells "THEIRS?" ~Author Unknown

I am thankful for the taxes I pay because it means that I'm employed. ~Nancie J. Carmody