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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: michael97123 who wrote (390906)	6/13/2008 7:12:37 PM
From: Tenchusatsu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1574270

Michael, currently the rate is 12.5% (half paid by employer, half paid by employee). I estimate at least a half to two-thirds cut in the rate if they lifted the FICA cap but kept everything "revenue-neutral." That means somewhere between 4% and 6%, which to the average idiot actually means 2% to 3%. The main point to take away from this is why we even have a FICA cap in the first place. The answer to that, plus the fact that many Democrats want to lift the FICA cap, demonstrates what a sham Social Security has become. Tenchusatsu

To: michael97123 who wrote (390906)	6/14/2008 1:05:12 AM
From: i-node	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1574270

What do you think the rate would be if they made fica applicable to all income but only sought to raise the same amount of dollars thru the tax as now? I would be for such a system that exempted the first XXX dollars of income or provided tax credits across the board for the first XXXX of income. The people who get killed are the self-employed, who pay both shares (employee/employer) at a rate of 15.3% (including Medicare). It applies to the first $1,000 of net income. When I was in public practice, the misery this tax caused the self employed was evident. I hated it -- every year, I'd see tons of self employed persons who made little or no money but got hit with 15% flat, plus whatever income taxes they owed. After the '86 act, when lots of deductions were eliminated, you'd have people -- middle class -- paying 15% SE tax plus 33% income tax -- that's 48% to the feds, before they even considered state or local. Insane. There is no making it better, though -- privatizing was the last, best hope and there is clearly no chance of that happening.