JJH / August 6th, 2008 at 4:53 pm

It will be interesting to see how many merchants STOP taking Paypal to stay off the radar.

Mechelle / August 6th, 2008 at 6:33 pm

making money on the side – is reportable income and if you are reporting then you are part of the issue that leads to this type of legislation.

200 transactions (payments received) is not your standard oh I’ll try to sell this on eBay trait- and 20,000 sure as H*** isn’t- unless it is a car or something.

“Government should take cuts from the wealthiest percentage!”

The government should shore up all the BS the wealthy can use to wiggle out of paying their portion of taxes. That doesn’t mean the wealthy should pay a tax rate disproportionately higher rate relative to the rest of us, which of course is relative to our income. Anyone not reporting 20,000 (on the side money) is robbing the rest of society – in other words you are robbing your social peers and lending to higher taxing for those of us who pay our taxes.

Taxes suck, but all aspects of being a grown up suck so may as well be a contributing member of society sucking it up like the rest of us- LOL

KPA / August 7th, 2008 at 5:29 am

Class envy is such and ugly way to look at our society. We are fortunate to live in a country that gives each citizen the opportunity to become wealthy. To only want to tax the wealthy is ignorance of just how much the wealthy support the masses. They pay over 70% of the taxes now. Why should they be forced to pay more.

Julie, if you worked damned hard all your life, sacrificed time and money, took risk and it paid off and you found yourself to be wealthy and paying 70% of the tax burden would you want some pip-squeek telling you that you weren’t doing enough and needed to pay more?

EVERY tax payer has deductions they can take, the greater the assets and holdings the greater the deductions. I am by no means wealthy but I believe ALL citizens of this country should support it, not just the wealthy. My husband and I HATE having to pay 45% of every dollar we make to the government to give to programs that enable people to be lazy and not work but that’s life, we pay it and work our butts off to make the money we want for our benefit. I’ll be damned if I want to give Uncle Sam more of it but to not report income and lie on tax forms is a recipe for financial ruin. You can’t fight the government and win usually.

Anyone not reporting 20,000 (on the side money) is robbing the rest of society – in other words you are robbing your social peers and lending to higher taxing for those of us who pay our taxes. AMEN SISTER!!!!

I just wish the system would go to a 10-15% flat tax and level the playing field. Sorry if this offends but I believe what the Bible says, (paraphrase) the man that does not work, does not eat.

Sandi / August 7th, 2008 at 6:40 pm

Julie, sorry being a stay at home parent does not exempt you from the same rules everyone else lives by. What kind of lesson is that teaching your children?

Everyone, not just some you deem, is required to play by the same rules.

Reality check, many Americans don’t consider making 20,00 or so a year a “side” job. It’s people who have cheated on their taxes that make rules like this neccessary.

I suppose you collect the earned income credit as well?

Amber / August 8th, 2008 at 9:24 am

Class envy is such and ugly way to look at our society.

My husband and I HATE having to pay 45% of every dollar we make to the government to give to programs that enable people to be lazy and not work

Wow. Just wow. That’s ugly and hateful IMHO.

People who complain the wealthy aren’t paying enough aren’t anymore ignorant of the way the system works than people who claim all taxes support welfare recipients who don’t do anything.

Taxes pay for much more than ‘public’ benefits. They pay for education, for roads, for public transit, for firefighters, for hospitals and other services utilized by ALL classes of society.

I am a stay-at-home mom with an online business. I paid taxes on my income last year. At a much higher rate than most, since it’s self-employment taxes. But the fact remains that I reported that income and I paid the taxes. I’m not happy about the new legislation because of privacy concerns, not because of the underlying financial issues.

The fact remains that the truly, astonishingly wealthy people of this country do not pay the same overall % of taxes that the ‘average’ person does. Warren Buffett pays a lower % of his income in taxes than a receptionist for his company. Sure, he pays MORE in terms of sheer numbers, but the percentage is lower. You can look it up on the web–it was widely reported around April.

But the inequity of the system isn’t excuse enough to avoid paying your taxes. I just wish there were a way to make people accountable without sacrificing privacy concerns.

Gail / August 8th, 2008 at 12:54 pm

“Taxes pay for much more than ‘public’ benefits. They pay for education, for roads, for public transit, for firefighters, for hospitals and other services utilized by ALL classes of society.”

State taxes pay for those. Federal taxes pay for all the public assistance programs.

Patricia1 / August 8th, 2008 at 2:17 pm

States pay the taxmoney to the government…OUR taxmoney – they get some of it back.

KPA / August 11th, 2008 at 4:52 am

“That’s ugly and hateful IMHO.” I don’t see it that way at all…that’s EXACTLY what is happening with a portion of that 45%. I’ve worked since I was old enough to mow grass, babysit, do whatever someone wanted done and was willing to pay a few dollars. At age 16 I legally went to work and became a tax paying citizen…even when 16 year olds didn’t have to pay if they made under a certain amount. I had parents who believed in doing the right thing and tried to instill that in us. I’ve gladly paid my fair share for MANY decades for people who WON’T. The reality of our society is that some people will ALWAYS be lazy and expect others to pay their way for them. To think otherwise is naive and ignorant of how abused the government hand out programs are. If you don’t believe me work in the system for a while and it’ll be quite an eye opener.

For people who GENUINELY need the help of government and charities I say give freely. I’m not naive enough to think it will ever be a perfect system because it won’t but after many years of working my butt off to try and get ahead I am tired of the whiners who don’t contribute B1+@#!ng about how hard life is or how cruel or hateful hard working tax paying American’s are when we disagree with supporting their laziness. To deny it exist or happens is ingorance.

Our nation is the most generous on earth yet despised by the very countries standing there with their hands out. We give freely to people in this country who hate it yet many still stand there with their hands out taking while continuing to put it down. I would love to see all discretionary spending, pork barrel projects, overseas giving and all hand out programs stopped for just one year. We’d get out of the trillion dollar debt we’re under now and be a nation of means again instead of a debtor nation. Politician can’t continue to tax and spend like drunken sailors and expect us to remain strong. I fear from the future of my grandchildren with the way politicians are running the government now. It’s frightening and continuing to tax more and more and more of the wealthy and small business owners will only continue to hurt our nation which in turn hurts you and me.

Most people are afraid to speak up or take a stand for fear of sounding hateful, uncaring or not politically correct while they stand there and watch our once great nation go down the tubes. HOW SAD!!!

Patricia1 / August 11th, 2008 at 9:53 am

A co-worker told me once a long time ago that she never begrudged the government her fair share of taxes…she was grateful that in this country she was freely allowed to earn as much as she wanted and work anywhere she wanted ;-) Not everyone sees paying taxes as a big burden. They, of course, would rather keep the money but they also understand what it costs to live here and taxes are part of that cost.

Mechelle / August 11th, 2008 at 12:28 pm

I agree there should be a flat tax and I think everyone should have to pay that flat amount whether they make 10,000 a year or 10 billion. Maybe it would work better to even go as far as making a reasonable flat of 5 to 10% and get rid of deductibles all together.

I know that probably won’t be a popular idea, but the reality is after deductions people can either end up paying no tax (yes paid as you go, but not once the taxes are calculated for returns) or relatively little. Then I am left wondering why we even bother drawing taxes throughout the year if it is only given back in full or beyond what was paid in. How will we ever reduce debt in this country if we continue to just give the tax money back at the end of the year. It just doesn’t make sense to do it this way.