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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (94995)	3/13/2002 6:46:30 PM
From: Giordano Bruno	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 132070

Any idea if they plan on bumping the maximum amount of earnings subject to the Social Security tax? Again? The last figure I saw is 84,900. Thanks, Jim

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (94995)	3/14/2002 9:45:49 AM
From: Tommaso	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

What's especially onerous about that $34,000 level is that 1. Included in the $34,000 is every form of otherwise tax-exempt income, PLUS 50% of your Social Security distribution. 2. This level of income ought to be easily attained by any two-paycheck couple; all you need is about $10,000 a year from any pension source, if you are both draeing SS. 3. That is the HIGHEST level: 85% of your SS is treated as ordinary taxable income above that level. I guess that does reserve complete benefits for the truly indigent. But it also means a huge transfer of what is billed as a retirement system into the general tax coffers--and once again, it's the middle income people who lose the most by far. Especially working married couples, whose income can be taxed on up to $160,000 a year, combined employer/employee contribution on such an amount being about $20,000 a year. But when they retire, all that money (on which they ALREADY paid federal and state taxes) is taxed a second time, effectively putting them in something like a 50% tax bracket. A CEO making $250,000 a year would only be taxed about $10,000 a year for Social Security (only taxed on the first $80,000 or so). OK anybody: What did I get wrong here?