in some years (not for a while), my Dad.

he is the owner of a painting business, one that paints mostly new residental homes. he employs around 7-8 painters. and as you can imagine that business is very hard right now, and fragile. with the housing market as it is now, its very hard for him to find work, but he does. he works twice as hard, for less.

but fortunately he is very productive and so are his painters, in fact his paint reps (the people that sell him paint) all thought he was a business twice the size because of all the paint he buys (meaning he gets a lot done).

who will raising taxes affect? people like him, small businesses will be devestated.

and a better question would be: how would raising taxes increase job growth?

at bolded: would you plan on creating any jobs if your taxes were raised?

It wouldn't. But it would assuage the guilty conscience of some old rich fuck- provided, of course, that his army of accountants can't find some new loophole. And isn't that what really matters?

Haha so true!  And yet they want to end tax breaks for millionaires here... go figure.

Seeing how US citizens are taxed based on their worldwide income I have trouble seeing in which juridiction they would be running too........( Mars ? Jupiter ?)

You do realize that people can move to other countries, right?

From what you are telling us I somehow doubt that your dad is making over 250k over a year. So I don't see how raising taxes on people that make more than that amount would affect him. And remember noone is speaking of raising taxes on business, only on personal income, those are two different things...

As to your question, I woudn't create jobs if my taxes were raised, I woudn't create any if they were lowered, I'm just not planning on creating any......

I am happy with my current situation and I don't see the point of taking on more responsabilities and working more ( because creating more jobs will always entail a time commitment ).

You have to understand that in some ways most people that create jobs do not do so because they want their fellow citizens to have work. They do so in the end to make more money.......Seeing how I am happy with what I make and I don't plan on becoming a workalcoholic if my taxes were raised I would cut back on some spending and that would be it.

Why do people want more money ? To buy more stuff. Well stuff is overated at some point, I rather have time to enjoy outside of work than work like crazy, make a lot more money and in the end have very little free time and be unhappy ( I was an executive in a small software company belonging to a big software corporation 5 years ago. I was making 170k/year without including stocks and I decided I would rather be a software developer, work less and have more free time, I took a pay cut and I am actually a lot more happy now..., those stocks I am exercizing these days are actually a left over of that period..)

If you look at who creates business it's not the rich in most cases, it is people that actually have an idea and wants to make some money out of it.

Lary Page, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs or Marc Zuckerberg did not make 250k a year when they created their companies. And guess what they created the 4 most successfull companies of the last 35 years............. And if you were to raise their tax rate now, they wouldn't even notice it...

They can but are you aware that all US citizens are taxed based on their worldwide revenues ?

If you move to Russia as a US citizen you will still pay the difference between russia's taxes and US taxes to the US government if US taxes are higher. ( so basically if you move to a country with lower taxes your taxes will actually not be lowered..)

The only way to escape the US federal taxes is to give up your citizenship..........

PS : The US is kind of an exception in that regard, most european countries tax their citizen based on the revenue they make in the country.

PS2 : This is only the case for income, not for business revenues where things are totally different ( although business have to pay some taxes if they want to bring back to the US cash that they made in foreign countries through subsidiaries).

... and your point is?

Americans are mostly descendants of individuals who decided to give up their citizenship to provide a better life for themselves and their children. Why wouldn’t someone who is facing punitive taxation to pay for the debt built up from buying other people’s votes decide to give up their citizenship to provide a better life for themselves and their children by moving to another country?

So when they say top 1% they mean "top 1% of those who earnt at least a single cent in the year'? I honestly did not know that. Regardless, I would still include 20% as a dent.

Before giving up your citizenship you have to acquire another one which is a lenghty process.( and have fun when you want to visit relatives in the US and have to be treated the way every foreigner visiting the US is)

Secondly US is the western country with the lowest tax rate so if you wanted to leave the US you would have to go to a non western modern country.

And most rich US citizens would balks at the notion of having to become a Jamaican or an Angolan citizen just to lower their taxes ( and whatever they would win in taxes they would loose in higher prices on most everything else, when the item they want to purchase is actually available....).

+ pretty much any job they are doing in the US would pay less in other countries, most people would rather pay 30% taxes on 250k income than 20% on 100k.......

So in practice this is not an available move to US citizens ( but is actually something done a lot more commonly in Europe due to ppls being taxed on soil income and not worldwide).

Oh and bye bye medicare and social security if you drop your citizenship and leave the country. And the fun part is that if you move to a country like France you will be screwed out french retirement too ( because it's based on having worked your whole life in France, not part of it). It's the same for a lot of Western countries by the way...

The government could double income taxes on rich, it still woudn't be worth it financially for them to leave...

Oh and here is the quicker : If you renounce your US citizenship, you still have to pay taxes to the US government for the next 10 years. LOL

PS : I made the move the other way ( from Europe to the US) I have a pretty fair knowledge of what I am talking....