Thousands who earn $200,000+ avoid income tax

The news that tax evasion by those earning over $200,000 has massively increased under Bush is no surprise, but it’s nice to see it in print. More interestingly, this article details a charming example of “disaster capitalism” in action:

The increases stem in part from two tax law changes, according to the IRS Spring 2008 Statistics of Income Bulletin…Responding to Hurricane Katrina, Washington exempted charitable contributions between Aug. 27, 2005, and Jan. 1, 2006, from the overall limit on itemized tax deductions and the 50% of adjusted gross income limit for such giving. The one-time change wasn’t limited to hurricane-related contributions.

“There was no excuse for not restricting it to the affected area,” said Joann Weiner, a former Treasury Department employee who analyzed the changes in her current job as a contributing editor at Tax Analysts, a non-profit publisher of tax information and data.

Death is inevitable, but federal income taxes aren’t for an increased number of high-income earners.

New IRS statistics show 7,389 federal tax returns with $200,000 or more in adjusted gross income reported no federal income taxes in 2005. That’s a 161% jump from the 2,833 comparable returns filed in 2004.

Additionally, 4,224 of the over-$200,000 earners reported no worldwide income tax liability on their 2005 returns, the IRS data show. That represents a 75% increase from the 2,420 comparable returns filed in 2004.

Posted by Szamko
Just tries to tell the truth.