Help me - I suck at math. Re: Bernie's taxes.

[jillan]

And I suck at doing taxes even more & that's why I use Turbo Tax.

Looking at Bernie's tax return...
Line 43 says their taxable income was 140,994
Line 44 says their taxes were 26,961
https://go.berniesanders.com/page/-/Bernie%20Taxes%20Full.pdf

Am I figuring this right when I show they paid 19% in taxes? And not 13.5% poutrage that we've been hearing all nite here and in the media.

Btw - this shows tax tables for 2014 from the IRS.

Table 1. 2014 Taxable Income Brackets and Rates
Rate Single Filers Married Joint Filers
10% $0 to $9,075 $0 to $18,150
15% $9,076 to $36,900 $18,151 to$73,800
25% $36,901 to $89,350 $73,801 to $148,850

http://taxfoundation.org/article/2014-tax-brackets



And if I'm not figuring this out right - nevermind!
(miss her!)

[ALBliberal]

1. CPA here he paid a 25% marginal rate. We have a progressive tax

System. Any beginning economics class will teach how a flat tax is regressive. Hillary paying 35% can't be applied to middle incomers and certainly not to working poor. If I made 20000 I would pay 7000 in taxes at this 35% rate they bandy about leaving me with 14000. But same scenario for 2000000 leaves me with 1400000. Pretty easy to get by on that.

[jillan]

3. Thanks!! So why all the outrage? Not

surprised to see it at DU but it's been coming from the pundits as well.

[ALBliberal]

6. False equivalency. And denial of basic financial truths. Frustrating

To read these threads. Grasping on to facts that are meaningless when applied equally to the wealthiest and the middle incomers. Turning facts and reality on their heads to feed a false narrative. I may go review the tax return in detail and write an OP. Frustrated.

[ebayfool]

2. Yup ...

They took standard mortgage interest deductions, uncompensated job/employee expenses (very low for a public official), state and real estate taxes, and $8350 charity deduction. This adjusted income of $140,994 puts them in the 25% tax bracket and paying $26,961 as a percentage of income: 19.12%. So yeah, you've got it right. But the whiners are never gonna listen to anything but the mantra of 13.5% stuck in their heads.


This is a bland, no frills return. I've filed substantially more complicated and great many more deductions on a lot less income than they did. They really oughta let me do their returns - I'd save 'em a bundle!

I used this site to do a quick run-thru (for a Clinton accolyte that was insisting they had to be using wealthy people loop holes!). It allows for different years input and is relatively easy to use.

http://www.moneychimp.com/features/tax_brackets.htm

And Gilda Radner, whatta talent! Miss her, too!

[jillan]

5. Let them know that :). After all this they'd

probably appreciate it.

[greymouse]

8. I doubt that you'd do better than Jane. She is a smart lady.

[ebayfool]

11. Aye, that she is!

I say that by way of pointing out how little they have taken in deductions. I'm sure they are also very mindful of how they are in the public eye. Saying they could have taken more deductions is in no way a slam or slur. Just a 'jestful' way of pointing out that this is indeed a bare bones tax return!

[radical noodle]

4. I believe that it was calculated on his income before the deductions

205271 x 13.5% = 27712, so I believe that's where it came from.

I think that gives more of a picture of what the deductions actually do to your tax rate.

Like you, I could be wrong about that.

[greymouse]

7. 4%

using that method, taxes due divided by income before deductions, my tax rate is under 4%. That's because I have a whacking hunk of things on Schedule A. There's a reason for schedule A - medical expenses, avoiding double taxation i.e. state taxes etc, charitable stuff. There's a heck of a difference between that and stashing assets in Panama or wherever.

[pugetres]

9. I'm not sure if the "poutrage" (I love that word!)

comes from us common folk just not understanding the tax code. Line 44 is confusing for people like me who rely on others to do our taxes. Long term capital gains vs...schedule D?...qualified dividends...housing exclusions???

I suppose some people want us to be confused about the difference between gross income and taxable income. He had a lot of itemized deductions since he lives in a state that has high taxes and he also had mortgage interest that was deductible.

I'll bend my tax man's ear next week if need be but I don't think it is necessary.

[greymouse]

10. I've done my own taxes for years.

I highly recommend it. You learn a lot about what affects taxes. By doing taxes, I mean with paper and ink, not feeding them into some black box software program.

Once you;ve struggled through doing one return, you can do the following years much more esily unless something significant changes.

[redruddyred]

13. "struggled thru"

fer reals?

cos i do the 1040EZ and it's like "simple addition problem and BOOM i'm done"

[LiberalElite]

14. That's why they call it EZ nt

[greymouse]

15. yeah, not EZ.

Ez = one page of one minute of effort.

[pugetres]

16. I should learn how to do them now

that I am married and the taxes are more complicated than when I was younger. Back then, standard deduction was all that I could take even with a mtg.

If something were to happen to my husband, I'd be hard pressed to know where to begin.

[greymouse]

17. yes,you should know all the family financial stuff

What if he gets sick or worse. You don't want the stress of not knowing stuff you have to handle. At least you should look at the returns to the point that you understand them, and know where all the financial accounts are, plus the will, trust, powers of attorney.

[BernieforPres2016]

12. The Clintonistas are going to want to show the lowest tax rate possible for Bernie

So they will apply the federal income tax paid to the highest possible income number, which is gross income from all sources before any deductions. I'm sure that's where the lower number is coming from.

If they're going to whine about Bernie's tax rate, why aren't they demanding that Hillary put a big tax increase on middle to upper income people, say $50K to $250K, into her campaign platform to help transfer more money to themselves and the rest of the top 0.1%?

Oh wait, Hillary supporters would never do that, because then it would be coming out of their pockets.