Except the bulk of the taxes come from W-2 earnings. How many CEO’s have $0 salaries but are compensated with equities and deferred compensation?[/quote]
If a CEO is paid in stock, he still has to pay tax on that stock. That is, a CEO can’t get out of paying tax just because he is paid in something that is not “cash”. For example, if a CEO is paid in cows, he still has to pay taxes on the fair value of those cows. So this is a straw man.
[quote=fat_lazy_union_worker]
For example, do you pay social security taxes on capital gains?
[/quote]
Nope.
[quote=fat_lazy_union_worker]
Also, if we were to remove the cap on social security taxes on income, who is this really hurting?
[/quote]
Under Obama’s plan, the social security tax will apply to income up to something like $95K, then there would be no social security tax on income between $95K and $250K, and then the social security tax would apply to income over $250K. Another straw man.
[quote=fat_lazy_union_worker]
I can see this already. Across the nation, CEO’s are going to (for the interest of the company) starting taking a $0 salary…(Of course the equity will be doubled, and especially at these market prices, that’s even more reward for the future).
Think about it.
[/quote]
As I stated above, the CEOs will be taxed on that equity when they receive it. Then, they will be taxed at a higher capital gains rate when they sell that equity. Another straw man.
[quote=fat_lazy_union_worker]
Also, while there are a lot of CEO’s that are crooks, not all of them don’t deserve what they have.
Would you be looking at your iphone, or macbooks if it were not for steve jobs? You think anyone else can really do his job (no pun intended)?
[/quote]
I would still gladly trade my income for Steve Jobs even under Obama’s “draconian” tax plan. Jobs’ income tax will go up a couple of percent, but I bet he will continue to run Apple and continue to make gobs of money as opposed to going and standing in a welfare line. But I get your point, under Obama the rich will pay income tax at a similar rate as the working, middle class. This will likely come as quite a shock to the super-rich who are used to getting non-stop BJs from Bush.
For a fat lazy union worker, you sure are concerned about the plight of the super-rich. Maybe you should start a charity Web site to help them pay their taxes.
