No One is Paying Taxes!

 Your taxes are due a week from today.  But before you start freaking out about how much money you owe the Feds, think about THIS . . . 

47% of American households won't pay ANY federal income taxes for 2009.  That's because they either earned too little money, or had enough credits, deductions and exemptions to cancel out their liability. 

Take a family of four earning $50,000 a year:

They're entitled to a standard deduction of $11,400, and four personal deductions of $3,650 apiece.  That leaves their taxable income at $24,000 . . . meaning they owe $2,769 in federal income taxes.

If their kids are both younger than 17, the family gets two child tax credits of $1,000 apiece. 

And after their $800 Making Work Pay Credit . . . which was part of PRESIDENT OBAMA'S economic stimulus plan last year . . . the government would actually OWE the family $31.

To be fair, the family would still have to pay state and local taxes, and federal payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare.  But so does everyone else.

Overall, the breakdown looks like this:  The top 10% of earners . . . meaning households earning an average of $366,400 . . . will pay 73% of all income taxes collected by the federal government.

Meanwhile, the bottom 40% of earners can all expect a full refund from the federal government. 

Now, as much as you may want to, you can't totally blame . . . or thank . . . the Obama administration.  Here's why: 

In 2007, just 38% of American households didn't have to pay federal income taxes.  But in 2008, 49% didn't pay federal income taxes.  And now we're down to 47% under Obama.  In other words, MORE Americans are paying federal income taxes after Obama's first year in office, than in PRESIDENT BUSH'S last year in office.   So I'll give credit where credit is due.