Today is tax day, when I swing conservative more than any other day of the year. You may have noticed my conversion to libertarian politics last night: as the moon turned red and eventually disappeared, I began to agree with Ron Paul. I paid my taxes yesterday at an effective rate of 24%. By contrast, Mitt Romney famously paid 14% in 2011. I did not make Romney money last year, but I paid nearly double Romney’s rate, thanks to the self-employment tax. I am here to tell you that the self-employment tax is bullshit.
Tag Archives: self-employment tax
Senate kills Buffett Rule
Just in time for tax season, the Senate has blocked the so-called Buffett Rule, which would have required households earning more than $1 million annually to pay an effective tax rate of 30%. The vote went off at 51 for and 45 against, which means it’s dead in the new, everything-will-be-filibustered Senate. Meanwhile, the party whose ideology naturally aligns with stalemate pushed its own bill to allow business owners to deduct 20% of their income next year—a plan whose benefits would go overwhelmingly to high-income households, according to the Tax Policy Center. Also meanwhile, I paid my taxes. I gave back 29% of my income from 2011, as compared with the Obamas’ 20.5% and the Romneys’ estimated 15.4%. I am the only person in this paragraph who is not a millionaire.