*Loan,banking and credit>>>income tax

I've heard that many of the wealthiest americans only pay 15% income taxes ... should the rich pay more?

Should the wealthy pay more taxes and a lots of it. By wealthy, I refer to the top 1 or 2% of wealth holders in the country. They not only control maybe 70-80% of wealth in this country, the entire policy of the current administration is set to ensure they become even more wealthy.

They live in a country that fosters and encourages wealth. If someone rises above the fray, they should reap the rewards ... But, should the rich expect that entire governement policy be created to support their increased wealth, while the same policy tramples down the poor and middle classes?

The Republicans will always bang their drums loudly on how this would affect small business owners. ... but it not the small business owners they are protecting ... small business is not the main political contributors of the Republican party, while big business is a huge political contributor. The Republicans are about big business and the very wealthiest in this country .. hence the huge tax loopholes

It all depends upon where the income is derived. Long-term capital gains (gains on investments held for more than one-year) are taxed at 15%. Some people may have all their income come from these types of gains.

Will the fair tax fix this? Nope and I'll tell you why. The fair tax proposes to do away with long-term capital gains taxes and only tax spendings. In other words, a national sales tax. The problem with the long-term capital gains scenario is that not all gains are spent. For example, let's say a wealthy investor makes $600,000 in capital gains from stock sales. If he only uses $200,000 to buy things for himself, then he'll only get taxed on the $200,000. The other $400,000 he'll reinvest and won't get taxed on that at all. At least under current tax rules, the wealthy are taxed on what they earn and not just on what they spend.

Now, if a wealthy person does earn a paycheck or is a successful short-term trader, then they'll pay higher taxes on those earnings. Short-term capital gains are typically taxed at the highest tax rate of the earner. For the top earning 5% or so, that would be 35%.

Whoever said that the rich don't pay taxes, don't know what they are talking about. The top earning 1% in the U.S. pay approximately 36% of all income taxes collected. The top earning 25% pay 84.5% of all income taxes collected. The top earning 50% pay about 97% of all income taxes collected.

In reality, the Buffet quote wasn't at a luncheon, it was actually in a meeting with Ben Stein. Ben Stein wrote the major points of the conversation in an article in the NY Times. There are some important facts to consider. First, when Warren Buffet asked his employees to tabulate their taxes, he asked them to tabulate all federal taxes. That means Social Security and Medicare in addition to income taxes. While Medicare taxes are taken against all earnings, Social Security taxes are only against approximately the first $90,000 of income. This makes a big difference when comparing a $90,000 salary versus a $40 million income. The $5,580 in Social Security taxes paid by the $90,000 earner is 6.2% of their income. The $5,580 paid by the $40 million earner is only 0.014% of their income. That's the biggest difference. A $90,000 a year worker, assuming a family of four and married filing jointly pays approximately $10,123 in federal income taxes, $5,580 in Social Security taxes and $1,305 in Medicare. That comes to $17,008 in federal taxes, which is 18.9% of their total income. Remove Social Security from the equation and the tax burden drops to 12.7%. So, as you can see, the Social Security contribution is the real difference. BTW, in the Ben Stein article, they never mentioned the actual percentages of what worker's paid. As far as I know, any percentages you may see on the net attributed to this interview are probably wrong.

Should the rich pay more in taxes? Yes, I definitely agree with that premise. The wealthy are more able to afford higher taxes. However, it is probably not as bad as some people make it out to be.

FAIR TAX would solve that problem, wouldn't it?
most of them dont pay any.
You've heard wrong

The top income tax bracket is 35%
http://www.moneychimp.com/features/tax_b...
problem is who you heard this info from. why not try going and looking at statistical reports at the IRS website- you get your answers.
Are you kididng? Many rich Americans pay NO taxes. They buy the politicians who create loopholes for them. Justin Dart, a Republican contributor going back to the Nixon years, renounced his citizenship as a tax dodge and wrote a pamphlet instructing others how to do the same. THERE's a Patriot for you!