It’s somewhere around that number for Federal income tax. But remember that a lot of that is senior citizens who do not make enough to pay taxes or make any of their SS be taxable.
Everyone with earned income pays FICA tax though, with the exception of the few occupations that can opt out or those who are covered by other public pensions.
^^ or the 50% of my household that is kids, also not paying Federal income tax.
That percentage is a household number. Apparently with the improving economy, that number is down to 43% or so.
Here’s a nice chart:
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxtopics/federal-taxes-households.cfm
Only 14% of households who pay no income tax also pay no FICA taxes, and 2/3 of those are elderly, and much of the rest are low income, probably on disability.
I would love to see the breakout with able-bodied people who have never worked and have somehow managed to live in public housing and receive monthly benefits, Medicaid plus other benefits. We need to turn around this situation so that only those truly elderly/disabled or children young enough that need care receive benefits while giving enough incentives for those that can work (take away the free ride to those able bodied).
I do not believe in the assumptions about low income being almost all due to disability. There are able bodied people that have grown up learning about living off entitlement programs and living off benefits meant to be spent on their under age children.
However we have to rely on our elected officials on the federal scene for the most part. Can reach out more at state and local level.
Before she passed, my widowed mother was paying no federal income tax, and was a head of household, therefore one of the 47%.
But between local and property taxes, she paid almost 50% of her income out in taxes. She could have paid less if she’s moved to a lower tax state, but what she saved ( and much more) would have been spent in the care my H and I provided.
SOSConcern, with all due respect, I don’t think this country should set public policy based on your beliefs.
Have you ever heard this story?
There are three people sitting at a table. One person is upper class. One person is middle class class. One person is lower class. On the table there are ten cookies. The upper class person takes 9 cookies. There is one cookie left. Then the upper class person elbows the middle class person and then he says to the middle class person,“You better watch out. The lower class person is going to try and take a piece of your cookie.”
“Nothing amuses me more than the easy manner with which everybody settles the abundance of those who have a great deal less than themselves.” --Jane Austen
Profparent, Nice quote.
Re: post 5994
Ixnay,
The LIRR and employees should be ashamed of themselves. Thats disgusting.
Almost all San Jose Firefighters do the same, claiming disability once they retire. It was in the Mercury News.
I won’t be surprised if all firefighters and policemen in this country claim disability.
Absolutely not. The most predictable outcome when new money comes in is that you’ll have new programs created to tap into it, and a decade later we’ll be in an even bigger whole with the new entitlements. To me the best case scenario would be if more money isn’t thrown at it, and it morphs into an extended welfare program that perhaps the bottom quartile tap into. If you want to see a positive for SS you’ll find it when you look at the numbers for medicare.
Really sad though - the concept of a pooled retirement makes so much sense because everyone doesn’t have to save to live well past the mean age, but when it’s administered so badly it’s better to scale it down.
Claiming disability and qualifying for disability are and should be 2 very different things.
More likely, I think, is that the new revenue is siphoned off to the general budget, the president and congress each try to take credit for lowering the deficit when they try to get re-elected, and 20 years down the road when the bonds get cashed, those people get stuck with the bill. We’re talking real money here - that kind of tax increase would generate on the order of $200 billion per year in new revenue.
Congress is starting to increase the deficit now…
http://time.com/money/3823180/medicare-doc-fix-congress/
The medicare fix will raise costs for a small percentage of those on medicare.
I don’t use medicare as it exists today in my retirement calculators. 
And then there is this…
It is tedious reading through all this stuff. It’s all the wealthy’s fault, they’re keeping too much for themselves, stealing from the poor. People are taking advantage of the system, too lazy to take care of themselves. These people don’t pay enough taxes, these people pay too many, etc,etc. This is the same old stuff that nobody is going to fix. Simplify the tax system so there aren’t a billion tax breaks, tax all income the same, make it harder to rip off benefits you shouldn’t be getting…but nobody is going to do that. It’s all rhetoric.
So why don’t we get back to retirement?
Busdriver11, you were incessantly complaining when there were proposals to raise your income tax $10,000 or less.
My turn to complain because Christie wants to take $700,000 from me. 
I don’t know if you are going to collect medicare. If so, your future premiums were just increased. You may have to take out another loan.
SS and medicare affect retirement, right?
Ok…if I don’t read anymore bs like SS is broke…maybe I will keep my mouth shut.
Don’t worry, he’s not touching your money. Somebody else might, though. Just seemed like a lot of propaganda going back and forth on here since I last checked in. Kind of like old times 
I don’t think he is touching my money, but I am feeling very paranoid. I think somebody is out to get me.
I had a dream last night. There was somebody knocking at my front door. It was around 5 in the morning in the dream. Who would be knocking on my front door at that hour? I go to answer the door. There is a gun sticking out of the mail slot in the front door. The gun is pointing at me. Freaked me out. I don’t have a mail slot in my front door! But my parents do! And my mom told me yesterday she had sex with my dad 6 times a week for 50 years!
The medicare premium increase is real. I think the increase is very small. I haven’t seen the increase yet. Also a deductible is raised.
Well, that was random. Who answers the door at 5 am?
Your mother is obviously losing her memory. Or trying to shock you, cause no way!
The medicare increase may be small, but for people that have nothing saved and are living on SS, I’d imagine it’s large to them.
Medicare is means tested or income based is probably more accurate. The poor won’t be affected by the medicare premium increases. You have to make over 135,000 a year.
I answer the door at 5 in the morning…in a dream. The dream happened. What my mom said is probably a slight exaggeration… Very slight. My parents really like each other…which is a good thing.