Re: Wealth and the Art of Avoiding Taxes

Andreas Pour wrote:
>   The 400 wealthiest taxpayers accounted for
>   more than 1 percent of all the income in the
>   United States in the year 2000, more than
>   double their share just eight years earlier,
>   according to new data from the Internal Revenue
>   Service. But their tax burden plummeted over
>   the period.
> 
>   The data, in a report that the I.R.S. released
>   last night, shows that the average income of the
>   400 wealthiest taxpayers was almost $174 million
>   in 2000. That was nearly quadruple the $46.8
>   million average in 1992. The minimum income to
>   qualify for the list was $86.8 million in 2000,
>   more than triple the minimum income of $24.4
>   million of the 400 wealthiest taxpayers in 1992.

As usual, there is a serious logical error in your latest rant.

These figures for income are NOT the actual income (on an accrual basis) 
for the year, but rather the income (on a cash basis) reported to the IRS 
for the year.

That is, if they purchased stock ten years ago and sold it last year the 
IRS figures would report ALL of the income as being in last year.  this is 
non-sense.  But, this nonsense results in lower tax rates directly 
producing more income (according to the IRS's figures).

--
JRT


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