Millionaires Don't Pay Taxes? 1,470 of America's Richest Didn't, According to IRS

They are trying to eliminate those loopholes for many years but still there are really smart people who can get away with it. I just hope that the technology can help them with this problem.

-Ms. Teython

I am not surprised because some famous celebrities don’t pay the right tax as well. I just can’t understand their reason because they are earning a good amount of money.

-Geena C.

those selfish bastards need to stop making huge charitable contributions so they can pay their fair share of taxes

Here's a novel idea......EVERYONE pays the same amount REGARDLESS of how much they make.  No loopholes, no special consideration if your the richest or the poorest, if you earn a dollar you are taxed on it at the same rate as each and every American citizen.  The notion some here have put forth that the very rich should be exempt because they contribute to charities is simply ridiculous, If they are truly caring people they will continue to contribute when they pay there fair share of tax's as I and my family do.

Millionaires do pay taxes! Please don't just look at one year...look at the past also. You say about 1,500 of the richest didn't pay taxes, but you forgot to mention the 49% of tax filers(who have AGI below $30,000)  who also did not pay taxes (many of whom actually made money when they filed).

Really? Did you read any of the IRS data there's plenty out there.  Now were did you see that they paid 0? Even if they did thats less the 1/2 of 1% of total 1000000 up earners. So lets put it all out there.  Out of 236883 returns of 1milion or more 235413 returns had taxable income leaving 1470 returns.  What he fails to tell you that there were 58603939 returns with no taxable income (thanks mostly to refundable tax credits). Yup out of 58 million returns that beat the goverment 1470 were high earners, and thats where we should plug the leaks.  Now as for average returns instead of using his selective data we will use the irs's. People earning more then 1 mil averaged 24.6 percent return.  So for everyone of the top 400 that came under someone in that top group made up the difference.  Now as for my tax group 20K-30K I personally paid 8.9 where the average was 5.0.  Now that is on tax returns with postive AGI.  If you add in all the returns with deductions and refundable credits (of which he's associating this 1470 with) the top 1 mil and up pay an average rate of 24.4 a huge drop 0.2% (those rotten 1470). Now in my tax group it goes from 5% to -3.7% yes negative that means my tax group averaged out getting 3.7 cents for FREE for every dollar they earned.  So while Im against that 1470 returns out of 236883 getting there loop holes filled im more inclined to see the ones in my group as least pay something and stop getting free money.  http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi... pages 23 and 24 if you want to look. Before going off about fair share or the wealthy not paying theirs look the info up.  For laughs why dont you do an honest rate look at your W-2 (or others) take your total income (not after any adjusted IRS stuff) and your total paid into federal taxes.  Now go to your return and look at the end on what you were refunded or what you had to send in.  If you got a refund minus that from your federal taxes paid and if its negative you got free money if not divide by total income.  If you paid add it to the taxes and divide by total income and just see what your rate is.  THERE is no group with and average rate of 35%.

nearly no one pays 35% in taxes.  If you did any homework whatsoever, you would have seen that the effective tax rates for the middle class (what people actually pay after deductions and credits) is lower than the richest in the country, on average

Started to read until "diving like a conservative congressman in a bathroom stall".

I see unbiased reporting is not your strong suit.

If tax cuts for the rich created jobs, where are the jobs? Bush lowered taxes and Obama extended them.....Still no jobs? Will extending them once again created jobs, or just affirm that old adage about repeating the same thing over and over and exptecting idfferent results? The only European country that didn't embrace austerity is Germany, and they're doing the best of all of the European countries. Raise their taxes to at least middle class leve, and get rid of the loopholes.

bigot

If our ancestors worked hard and we continue to do so then I do not know why people are angry at us for being rich. It wasn't handed to anybody, people who lead better lifestyles made it by hard work and luck in some cases. Why should we suffer for the poor? Did we make them poor? Did we make them drop out of school? Did we make them pregnant in their teens? Did we give them drugs and alcohol to abuse? No, we are not responsible for them. Even though we create alot of jobs for them. But you wouldn't hear of that in the liberal media. 

And you don't think the rich pay taxes on their 5 houses, cars, yachts, planes and what not? You go buy a $500k Rolls Royce and see how much taxes you pay. Or eat at a 5 star restaurant instead of McDonalds.

No, we'd just move elsewhere.  Less money to invest means less jobs.  Higher taxes means it cost more capital to take those same risks.

15% yes, but.......That's after the corporation had to pay 35% federal and 10% state tax, or 45%, plus the 15% means the Gov't collected 60% on those same dollars (double taxation)

If they eliminate that, then those people will just go on the payroll and the Gov't would receive significanly less in taxes.

Then They not millionairs

Sorry buddy you are in an imaginary world and thanks for pointing out the biggest blue state for your example.

By the way, that's less than 1% of all the millionaires who filed taxes in the USA: .7%. That means that the other 99.3% payed taxes, to the average tune of 29.1% while the households earning ~$50K payed around 15%.  So get off of it people.

Funny how Mr. Romero chose to provide a number (1,470) and not a percentage of millionaires that didn't pay taxes in 2009.  According to the IRS, there were over 200,000 millionaires in 2009.  So those 1,470 are actually less than 1% of all millionaires.

Actually new york city has more millionaires than LA. Almost twice the number. LA has 350,000 or so, NY has 630,000 or so, according to the census.

The idea that the rich create jobs and taxing them fairly would create more unemployment is totally bogus. The rich (and really all capitalists) are driven by greed. Take away some of their money in the form of fair taxes, and they'll be greedy for more. Unemployment would likely go down rather than up.

"What kind of men are these who never hunger, never thirst; but eat and drink until they burst."-Lao Tzu (500 BC)

One would think people would get tired of this. It's getting close to the time when the 1% who own almost half of the wealth of this country will have it taken away by force (legislatively or anarchistically).

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Sound Familiar????

I'm for the 10% tax across the board.  With no tax returns.  No deductions, just based on what your paystub states as gross income. And any business that creates jobs should get a 1% tax break, so they would pay 9% flat rate because everything they are paying employees is producing 10% each anyway.  Consider it a contribution to your own country.  It's OUR deficit that paid for OUR military and defense to protect OUR country.  Why don't WE pay for it? 

prob is politicians are bought by these rich ones .  and those who do create jobs hire illegal Mexicans .   are money hungry and dont hire us legal citizens .    this country will never recover untill WE stop buying foreign made goods , and hiring  illegals .  theres jobs out there illegals have them , by stealing identity's etc etc etc .wake up amercians

Well Obama's Adjusted Gross Income for 2011 Tax Filing is 1.7 million... Obama got a $12,344 Dollar return. Yes his accounts played the numbers so he got a RETURN Even better he is in a seperate class of Millionares that get a return

"The report states that donations to charity, investment in government bonds, and taking cash from overseas operations has resulted in a legit, $0-tax bill for these high rollers."

Yeah, that's how the law works. Donations to charity, investing in government bonds (LOANING THE GOVERNMENT MONEY), and earning revenue from operations outside of the USA should offset tax demands. America's richest still pay 70% of US taxes. the bottom 15% of america pay ZERO tax.

You know what the inheritance tax is? 40%. The government takes 40% of previously-taxed money. You know what the tax is for gains made above 13,000? 30%. 

The "rich" are paying more than their fair share. The real problem is where these taxes are going. Demonizing the successful might win votes for the democrats who depend on the poor to keep them in office but it WONT change the economy.

it's just pathetic politics. 

Great stuff from you, man. Ive read your stuff before and your just tooawesome. I love what you’ve got here, love what your saying and the wayyou say it.

Charlatans offering malicious social policies routinely appear at our front door wrapped in a flag, clutching a bible and we invite them inside each time because we must think they haven't stolen enough from us yet.

Buy a 25 million dollar corporate jet, write it off as a business expense.  No taxes due.

YES , WE CAN...YES , WE CAN...WE WILL WIN IN WAR ON TERROR (30 whities or what are terrorists will never come back alive...thank you lord....aaamen).

What do you mean tragedy! It was just a birthday present for planet apes president !!! That's all ! Feels great to flip hamburgers and hip hop atop of good news...makes you feel vibrant and energized !!!

ARIZONA = UTOYA = GOVERNMENT‘S "AFTERLIFE" CASH & $$ FLASH MOB (there was no shooting in Utoya or Arizona, but tear gas and theater instead on faces of multiculturalism maniacs..your guilt or blame and shame weapon against us and our families in our own countries atop of forceful unemployment during so called "ECONOMIC CRISES" during which third world foreigners are allowed to rape, kill, and still is nothing else but fast way to early retirements for government related criminals/ terrorists...$$$ extra bonuses, and newly issued state identities while calling you a terrorists) !!! http://stateofterror.blogspot.... or http://stateofterror.wordpress...

OBAMA = STALIN = BUSH or USA = SOVIET UNION http://avsecbostjan.blogspot.c... or http://avsecbostjan.wordpress.... Whitie is fighting war on terrorism just to come home and be pronounced as terrorist...turned in Timothy, jobless, homeless ...YESSS, WE CAN...YESSS,  WE CAN...GABBY OPENED HER EYES (Obaminator’s psychotic speech in Tucson = failed “Apocalypse Now“)

WAKE-UP !!! WAKE UP PEOPLE BEFORE IT GETS ALL TO LATE ON PLANET  APES !!! TEARS WON'T DO YOU ANY GOOD !!! AS BUSH STATED "THAT'S WHAT THEY ARE PAID FOR"(to die ) !!

EVEN IF IRAQ WOULD  HAVE BEEN WAR FOR OIL ONLY,  VETERANS WOULDN'T NEVER EVER HAVE TO BE HOMELESS PEOPLE THE WAY THEY ARE AND NOR WOULD OUR PEOPLE HAVE TO DIE ALLOVER THE PLACE THE WAY THEY DO TO VERY TODAY(never ending “war on terror” story). BECAUSE EVEN IF WAR WAS FOR THE SAKE OF MONEY, MONEY SHOULD BE USED  FOR AMERICAN CITIZENS AND NOT WHAT THE CASE IS OR AGAINST WHITES(to destroy us allover the world) !!! You don't really proof for 911, just put  your sht together in your heads...THIS IS PLENTY ENOUGH TO HAVE O(B)SAMA  INDICTED FOR CRIMES COMMITTED AGAINST WHITE AMERICAN HUMANITY TOGETHER WITH HIS ZIONIST MASTERS) !!!

Don't worry O(s)bama, you have just saved USA what is lots of Dollars in  your DEBT DEALS as those best of America or Navy Seals would  also grew older and then you already know how it goes...DEAD & ILL = DEBT DEAL !!!

HOW MUCH FURTHER ARE WE WILLING TO GO IN ORDER TO PLEASE VERY SAME PEOPLE WHO DENY US EVEN THE RIGHT TO EXISTENCE(what is to you country without laws or lawless country in respect to your personal rights, but the one that in contrast to your denied basic human rights recognizes you extremely liable when payments are due) !!?

IS IT INDEPENDENCE THAT WE CELEBRATE OR DEPENDENCE (what are your credit card bills or alimony saying about it) !!? HOW IS YOUR DIABETES AND LOST MARRIAGES !!? FORECLOSURES AND  JOB SEARCH !!? THAT IS THE QUESTION TO BE OR NOT TO BE !!! IS IT LAND OF THE FREE OR STATE OF TERROR AGAINST OWN  POPULATION !!? IT IS TIME TO LET THEM KNOW WHAT COLOR ARE THE STRIPES ON OUR STAR SPANGLED BANNER !!! TIME TO DETERMINE WHOSE INDEPENDENCE/AMERICA, WE CELEBRATE TODAY(who wants to erase us and denies us the right to exist) !!! IT IS  IMPORTANT TO KNOW WHOM WE ADDRESS WITH "PRESIDENT" (STOP HUMILIATING YOURSELF) !!!

VOTING POLL:

DO WE NEED MORE PROOFS TO INDICT OBAMA AND BUSH ADMINISTRATION FOR CRIMES COMMITTED AGAINST WHITE HUMANITY !!?

1)NO, THEY ARE CLEARLY GUILTY AS OIL WAR NEVER EVER WAS REAL ISSUE IN GENOCIDE AGAINST WHITES. REAL ISSUE  ARE FACTS OR WHAT WE WITNESS TODAY WHEN VETERANS  ARE HOMELESS, JOBLESS, KILLED, ETC.

2)NO, AS 911 ALONE AS WELL AS ACTIONS IMPOSED AGAINST  WHITES IN USA (as well worldwide) ARE CLEARLY INDICATING ACTS OF GENOCIDE AGAINST WHITE HUMANITY

3)YESS AS JUST YESTERDAY(for over 15 years to very yesterday), WE (news/media = vacuum world of lies) WERE TELLING YOU THAT UNEMPLOYMENT WAS AT 10% WHILE TODAY ONE IS AT 50% (HOW COME NO ONE QUESTION JOURNALISM LIKE THIS OR  WHAT IS WORLD OF LIES AND DEMENTIA)!

4)I AGREE WITH FIRST TWO ANSWERS ABOVE.  IT IS TIME TO PRESS CRIMINAL CHARGES AGAINST BOTH ADMINISTRATIONS DUE TO ACTS OF GENOCIDE AGAINST WHITE HUMANITY FOR THE SAKE(SAFETY) OF US AND OUR CHILDREN(DO NOT TURN THEM IN WHITE REFUGEES ON PLANET APES OR WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO SEE WHEN VISITING ABOVE PAGES) !!! 

I get it now....so if I win the lottery and take a lump sum payment and get hit with a 50% tax rate when I take the payment then quit my job and earn no income for the next 50 years, I should have to continue paying income tax every year because I am a millionaire with no income. That makes total sense/sarc

Has anyone actually read the IRS source? It does not say what this writer is saying. In any moment it says that the 1,470 people who did not pay taxes were millionaires and billionaires. This writer is trying to cause sensation and make people mad at rich people, by lying using "true" information. 

"The report states that donations to charity, investment in government bonds, and taking cash from overseas operations has resulted in a legit, $0-tax bill for these high rollers." What don't you understand?

maybe they already paid their taxes on their millions?  duh?  and so what if they are giving to charity, would we rather have them give it to Obama to pay for his hip hop birthday bash, or charity?   This is a non issue, why not make a big deal about the 50% of us citizens who pay no federal tax   and don't give to charity.

Dennis Romero, you should really decide if you want to report on a serious and complex issue like taxation, or just take juevenile propaganda swipes at Republicans (who want to throw out the entire tax code and eliminate ALL these loopholes). If you want to report responsibly, then report accurately - you make no distinction between taxation on the individual level versus that derived from capital gains. For that matter you make no allowance for corporate taxes and don't even mention the AMT (Alternative Minimum Tax). Nor do you mention that even under this crappy system the richest 10% of Americans pay nearly 70% of the taxes. The top 50% of earners pay 97% of the taxes. The bottom 50% of earners pay 2.7% All you do is feed people disinformaiton to stoke their class warfare biases. This is the result of legal loopholes in a progressive tax system. Don't like the result? Then let's scrap the system. But wait, who is the biggest defender of our progressive tax system? The Democrats! Who wants to GET RID of the IRS and progressive income tax? Republicans and Libertarians! Try being intellectually honest.

This is a travesty!  I don't want them to pay any more than I do, but they should at least pay as much as I do.  If these people were taxed like the rest of the US, then we wouldn't have such a deficit.

If every liberal member of Congress was always referred to in a nasty way just as illegitimately as this article does, the writer must accept the same painting of liberals as conservatives.  There are more than enough disgusting politicians to point at of the liberal persuasion, if not more. This writer is someone who would take the Clintonian line of 'it depends what is is" than face up to hatred of groups through class warfare.  If the writer had an education based on reality and economic facts, the writer would be aware most rich don't stay in the top ten percent very long and neither do the bottom twenty percent stay in the bottom twenty percent very long either.  The idiocy of Obama speeches over corporate jets will end up, if he wins the argument, the destruction of the manufacturing of corporate jets in the US, just as Carter's idiotic yacht taxes wiped out thousands of jobs in that industry and the US went from exporter to importer.  The luxury taxes laid off tradesmen, businesses downsized, it brought in negative revenue, if you can understand that concept.  The net effect has always been in the eighteen percent range of taxes the gov collects, whether it's high tax rates or low tax rates.  The fact that the top twenty percent pay most of the taxes and the bottom fifty percent of Americans pay nothing, should tell you that socialism works great until the gov runs out of other peoples money to buy off your independence.  That's always been a truism.  The fact you can take one hundred and fifty percent of everyone's income in the top twenty percent and the US is still in debt should wise up the liberal tax the rich and spend into the next century's income.  The republican party got Clinton reelected and created the surplus.  Clinton gets paraded around as if he created the surplus when in fact had he his way along with the tax and spend Democrats it never would have happened.  Obama gets paraded around as if the economic mess is his fault when it's the Democrats in Congress that did everything idiotic.  Well in this case Obama can take a third of the blame, and Congressmen the rest.

I think the middle class should have to pay more taxes to cover the rich. It's important that the rich stay rich and it's important that the middle class not be able to get ahead and thus pose a threat to the rich. We must protect the rich from uppity middle classers who might threaten corporate America with enough funds to start small independent businesses that mostly hire family members. Middle class people should just be grateful that their energy and ingenuity and taxes will be appreciated and absorbed by the rich. Pay those taxes middleclassers and think no ill of the rich or the politicians we've elected to work so hard for them. Some day your children will thank you for being a strong, proud doormat for the rich.

IRS is incompetent. Agents can only work on easy small case for few hundred dollars. There are million of millionaires do not paying taxes. Why work harder?  You cannot fight millionaires with power.

2009 was the year after the financial crisis. it makes sense that millionaires didn't have any taxes because a lot of them probably lost a lot of investment money in 2008.  wheres the loop hole? everyone knows these laws.

I love how there is so much hatred for the rich in this country, despite the poorest person living here is still rich compared to other countries.

Ok, I want names.  I'll bet that those richies out there in CA that are not paying are BIG donors to OBAMA and his cronies.  What so amny people do not get is that the so called protectors of the poor (DEMOCRATS???) are some of the biggest culprets of this tax dodging and using od the loopholes.  One example .. Jeffery Immel (who is the CEO of GE and the Presidents hand picked 'jobs czar') paid nothing in taxes last year and neither did GE.  Now we know HE is votig Democrat (at least while there are Democrats in charge) and if the Republicans take over, then he will be their best friend then with a big change of heart.  Follow the money .. this is not a "good Democrat/bad Republican" or vice versa thing.  It is a simple example of merchantilism and how the Federal Researve Bank, Goldman Sachs, George Soros, many Wall Street fat cats and politics of other nations are raping the American People.  I make a little over $250,000 a year and velieve me, I am no Millionare, yet I am targeted for a higher tax when I am already paying far more than I should (in the end about 50% of my earnings).  Our President sits on his throne and pretends that his campaign has nothing to do with the problems with our current tax coade.  It is time for the FairTax plain and simple.  The rich cannot avoid the tax and the poor actually get a leg up with it.  Read about it, learn it, understnad it and whatever you do, do not trust those politicians that do not like it.  They are for the current system of curruption.

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Jobs for the poor, taxes for the rich!!!

10% growth every year? That is the dream of every capitalist on the planet. You'd make a great one. Documentation on firing? If you can't do the job, its all your problem.

17% of a billion is only $170,000,000.  I guess that's not their fair share.  I sure do feel sorry for that person paying 35% of their $100,000.  They contributed a whole $35,000.  I'm for flat tax.  Everyone pays 20%.  No loopholes, no tax cuts.  Simple.  20% of anything earned is chopped off the top.