MOsanthrope

Posted by Chris on April 15, 2006 at 6:55 pm.

It’s a good day, if you’re one of the wealthiest Americans:

Example: let’s say your wealth puts you in the top 1/100th of 1 percent of all Americans. That’s about 28,000 people in the U.S. These people, on average, make around $2 million every five days, which is what the average American earns over the course of a lifetime.

The tax burden for these super-rich people has been steadily falling for years. For example, in 1993, they paid 30 cents of every dollar into federal income tax. In 2000, that had fallen to 22 cents. Now, with the Bush tax cuts, it has fallen to 18 cents.

* * *

[T]he tax burden in the U.S. over the years has been shifting from corporations to individual taxpayers. In the 1950s, corporations paid around half of all taxes. Today, their burden has shrunk to less than 10 percent. In fact, today, 60 percent of all U.S. corporations pay zero income tax.

If you’re a member of the middle class? Not so much:

However, Auffenberg Auto Mall’s Jamie Auffenberg reminds you to support your country and buy American!

Congress opened that loophole in 1960, hoping to attract employers and thick billfolds to St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John, and boost economic development.

New “residents” were taxed at a special 3.5 percent rate, as were businesses that agreed to set up shop in the islands, employ 10 locals and cough up the occasional charitable donation. “Imagine the possibilities,” boasts the island Web site: “By locating your business or part of your business in the United States Virgin Islands, you may be eligible to apply for unbelievable tax benefits.”

Unbelievable indeed, especially because there was no defined residency requirement. By the time the New York papers began writing about the boondoggle in 2004, businessmen had dodged $400 million in federal taxes. The beneficiaries included elite money managers and a St. Louis car dealer named Jamie Auffenberg, whose 2000 tax liability dropped from $2.3 million to $200,000 because he owned St. Croix real estate.

“I don’t make up the rules,” Auffenberg told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Suckers.

Filed under: Politics, Finance, Business, U.S., Economy