It's one of the reasons I like the Isle of Man. Individual income taxation is 18% only up to a maximum of 100,000 per individual :o) No inheritance, capital gains, or wealth tax either.


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>>>>>Oh, come on, John, the man is giving away a fortune. Why do you have to drag politics into it?
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>>>>I didn't drag politics into it, he did. He's the one saying he isn't paying enough taxes. How idiotic is that statement. If he wants to pay more, he can write checks to all kinds of organizations (you don't have to call it taxes). He could create entities that are altruistic. He can give money to thousands of causes. However, he wants to create a stir, and I have to ask why?
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>>>He has never struck me as the type to stir up a fuss. It must be that new pal of his, whatshisname, having an evil influence on him <g>.
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>>I agree, he has stayed in the background in the past. I just have to wonder what the purpose of this statement was. If he was trying to say the rich should pay the same percentage as the middle class, I can accept that. I think I've stated numerous times that a flat tax seems to be the most fair. However, the rich have so many loopholes, even a flat tax might be avoidable.
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>>The rich guy could take a 50k annual salary, then have the company fund everything else he does like buy his house, lease cars, airplanes, yachts, etc. He could dodge a flat tax, unless it was structured to include all those perks.
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>A flat tax is "fair" to those who make more than average. Our whole tax system -- long before Bush, long before Clinton, before any of these candidates were born -- is progressive. You may object to the word but the point is the well-to-do are asked to contribute more than their share in order to help those who cannot take care of themselves adequately. All developed countries operate this way.
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>Halfway off the topic, I saw an interesting statistic in the newspaper. An appalling percentage of high school students thought this phrase comes from the U.S. Constitution: "From each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs."