buffalo Loc: Texas

You see, payroll tax applies to all earned income (i.e., wages or salary you're paid) between $0.01 and $132,900 (as of 2019). This "cap" rises annually with the National Average Wage Index (NAWI). If, for example, the NAWI rises 3.5% year over year, then the earnings tax cap will increase 3.5% in the upcoming year. More than 9 out of 10 working Americans will earn less than $132,900 in 2019, which means they'll have the payroll tax applied to every single dollar they earn.

Meanwhile, a single-digit percentage of the working population will earn more than $132,900 in 2019. Although they'll owe their portion of the payroll tax up to $132,900, all earned income above and beyond this amount is exempt. For some folks, this might represent a small amount of their earned income. But if you earn $266,000 or more, a majority of your income will be exempted from the payroll tax.

Billionaire President Donald Trump is a perfect example of everything the working public dislikes about the current scope of Social Security's payroll tax. Aside from earning $400,000 as salary for being president, financial disclosures filed by Trump suggest that he earns in the neighborhood of $600 million annually, primarily from his employment assets. That works out to $1.64 million a day, close to $68,500 an hour or 1,141.55 a minute in estimated earnings. At this pace, it would take President Trump just 117 minutes -- less than two hours -- to hit the payroll tax earnings cap. In other words, Trump was probably done paying into the system before 2 a.m. on New Year's Day.

If that were not enough, keep in mind that only earned income is subject to the payroll tax. This means investment income, rental income, and multiple other sources of income, most often taken advantage of by the well-to-do, are exempt.

According to an analysis from the Social Security Administration, between 1984 and 2016, the amount of earnings exempted from the payroll tax has quadrupled from about $300 billion to $1.2 trillion. At a tax rate of 12.4%, that $1.2 trillion represents close to $150 billion in lost revenue for the program.

http://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/donald-trump-done-paying-social-110600027.html

The easy fix for Social Security would be to tax ALL incomes and keep the cap. But the greedy, crooked, in the pocket of the wealthy are not likely to do that.

debeda

This is where the arguments about social security become t***sparently all b.s.. we who pay are told that higher earners shouldn't have to pay beyond a certain threshold because there are caps on benefits. And in the next breath we're told that social security is NOT our money, but a tax that secures retirement income, disability and some welfare programs. So, if it's a TAX, why don't high earners pay on 100% of their yearly income? And if it's NOT a tax, how come I'll have to live to be 110 just to get back what I paid in and my employer paid on my behalf?

PS you'd have had a better discussion without throwing in the "h**e Trump " portion, IMO

PeterS

So if we uncap SS what about Medicare? Lifting the cap on both would probably make both solvent into perpetuity...

debeda

Of course, lift both. They weren't initially split out anyway and we still.have to pay Medicare premiums upon getting medicare.

acknowledgeurma

There is no cap on Medicare tax on earned income, but as with SS tax, unearned income is not taxed.

buffalo Loc: Texas

As you should know I am not a big fan of trumpy. I did v**e for him because the alternative would have been a disaster aside from her and her slick willies' obvious criminal lifestyle.

His income was the just the example in the article I cited. But I agree ALL incomes, earned and unearned should be taxes for Social Security and unearned incomes should be taxed for Medicare.

i 'm not advocating this for me. It will mean nothing to me. I am advocating it for my grown children(thankfully both and their spouses are doing very well) my grandchildren and my 2 great grandsons 31/2 and 1. I wish the gddamn s**m artist raygun and his sidekick, greenspan, hadn't cooked up the scheme and convinced Congress make Social Security subject to the income tax. Which he did to offset his tax cuts for his rich buddies. The same way trumpy and his repulsive accomplices will probably use cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid to offset the increase in the federal deficit and resulting unsustainable national debt. Rather than risk losing the white House and Senate, they will wait until after 2020 to fv(k the elderly, poor and disabled.

And you and other trumpy fans can give trumpy credit for the so-called good economy (that actually began to improve while his oliness was POTUS), the same way raygunites gave him credit, if it's all going to the 1%elite, then the middle and working class is not sharing in that economy and not raising their standard of living. Trump's is doing, or rather not do that either.

debeda

OK

PeterS

Thanks, I should have known that...

PeterS

So you v**ed for a crook because you didn't want to v**e for a crook. I love your logic Buffalo...

Nutter Loc: Fly Over Zone

[quote=buffalo]You see, payroll tax applies to all earned income


Trump like all of us has paid into the S.S. system all of his working life.

Is trump even collecting his S.S.?

Republican p**********l front-runner Donald Trump has called on his rich "friends" to forego collecting Social Security, saying of himself, "I don't need mine, by the way."

"I have friends that are worth hundreds of millions and billions of dollars and get Social Security. They don’t even know the check comes in," Trump declared at the No Labels convention in New Hampshire Monday, the Wall Street Journal reports.

In an appearance on the CBS news program "60 Minutes" that aired on Sept. 27, Trump was asked whether he stood by the proposal he made in his 2000 book "The America We Deserve" to raise the retirement age to 70.

"Not anymore," he replied, "because now what I want to do is take money back from other countries that are k*****g us and I want to save Social Security. And we're going to save it without increases. We're not going to raise the age and it will be just fine."

The response reiterated Trump's plan to ensure Social Security remains solvent by rebuilding the economy.

In an April 20 appearance on "Fox & Friends," the billionaire real estate developer said cutting the program won't be necessary in a thriving American economy.

"If you look at China, if you look at other countries, they're taking our jobs, their taking our manufacturing," he said on the show, Talking Points Memo reports.

"They're becoming wealthy as hell. They're loaning us back money…. We're not making our country rich and we're not gonna make our country great again."

But Republicans instead talk about cutting Social Security as a solution, he said.

"People have been paying in for years. They're gonna cut Social Security. They're gonna cut Medicare. They're gonna cut Medicaid," Trump said of his fellow GOP candidates.

"I'm the one that's saying I'm not gonna do that."

"I'm gonna make us so rich you don't have to do those things."

https://www.newsmax.com/Politics/donald-trump-rich-friends-social/2015/10/12/id/695900/
Monday, 12 October 2015 10:21 PM

emarine

The basic logic of the lesser of two evils is the cause of todays insanity... reason proves both were bad choices... next step is what to do about it...

Larry the Legend Loc: Not hiding in Milton

Nice idea. Would you also increase the payout these people receive in proportion to the increased funds they pay in? If not, then why are you advocating for stealing more of their earnings to give to someone else?

You can harp on about 'lost revenue' until the cows come home but understand this, those who pay the most usually receive the least. They are paying into a system that was designed to take their money and give it away to others who did not earn it and have no right to claim it. And they're paying into it, for reasons that I for one will never fathom.

Envy is a terrible thing, it eats away at your self-esteem and puts thoughts into your head that wouldn't be there if not for the evil that is envy. Instead of cursing those who are doing well in this world, wish them well, and hope they continue their goodwill towards the rest of humanity, because if they decide to withdraw their largesse, you will not appreciate the hardship that results.

vernon

First Donald Trump doesn't receive a salary. I'm sure you think he gave it up just so he wouldn't have to pay SS, but he is patriotic enough not to demand money from the country he loves.
But SS wasn't intended to pay,out much at the time you had to reach the age of 65 to draw it and the life expectancy was 59 so don't believe it was done for you.
The tax was designed for working people and that was why it was placed on wages. Oh when you hear liars like Gore and the Clintons talk about the lock box ,there never was a lock box the money went into the general fund from the first day. And it was just to get v**es that they play these games like disability
and death benefits but when they put that stuff on the books it has to raise taxes.
When i started working I was paying 300 a year and paid it out usually by April ,I just considered it a raise. Now if your wife works and gets a retirement she can't get your death benefits then of course you have to pay taxes on your benefits if you make a certain amount now that is taxes on taxes and that is crap. I wish i could have put mine in the bank and received interest and could have told them to keep their SS.

vernon

I'm 85 and have been v****g for a day or to,and in my time i have to say we have a president who cares about the working man and its the first time i can remember in my life time where that is the case.Trump has been the best president in my life time .

Larry the Legend Loc: Not hiding in Milton

Bingo! Not only would you be enjoying a much better standard of living for your retirement, but your heirs would benefit from your nest egg after you pop your clogs. As it stands now, you get wh**ever they decide to give you and your heirs get zilch on your death, because there's no account with your name on it and no money in that non-existent account.

Welcome to the world of socialism.