http://www.whoslying.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=557&Itemid=26Background
The following e-mail has been making the rounds.
Statement/Action
Subject: Interesting (Tax Account) numbers!! Every year an independent tax watchdog group analyzes the average tax burden on Americans, and then calculates the "Tax Freedom Day." This is the day after which the money you earn goes to you, not the government. This year, tax freedom day was April 11th. That's the earliest it has been since 1991. It's latest day ever was May 2nd, which occurred in 2000. Notice anything special about those dates? Today John Kerry gave a speech in which he claimed Americans are actually paying more taxes under Bush, despite the tax cuts. He gave no explanation and provided no data for this claim. Another interesting fact: both George Bush and John Kerry are wealthy men. John Kerry is worth well over $1Billion. George W. Bush is worth only about $30 Million. Bush owns only one home, his ranch in Texas. Kerry owns 4 mansions, all worth several million dollars. (His ski resort home in Idaho is an old barn brought over from Europe in pieces. Not your average A-frame). Bush paid $250,000 in taxes this year; Kerry paid $90,000. Does that sound right? The man who wants to raise your taxes obviously has figured out a way to avoid paying his own. Pass this on. Only 111 days until the election.
E-mail
Though the e-mail refuses to name the "independent tax watchdog group", it appears to be referring to the Tax Foundation.
Reasonable Inference
This e-mail is accurate.
Contradictory Statement/Action
Let’s take the claims one by one, shall we?
Subject: Interesting (Tax Account) numbers!! Every year an independent tax watchdog group analyzes the average tax burden on Americans, and then calculates the "Tax Freedom Day." This is the day after which the money you earn goes to you, not the government. This year, tax freedom day was April 11th. That's the earliest it has been since 1991. It's latest day ever was May 2nd, which occurred in 2000.
From Spinsanity:
Facts Freedom Day
More cooked-up numbers were recently distributed by a conservative group called the Tax Foundation, which released its annual calculation of "Tax Freedom Day" - the day on which the average American supposedly has earned enough to pay his or her federal tax bill. This gimmick is widely covered by the media each year despite its reliance on a misleading analysis that overstates what the typical American pays in taxes.
Because of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, this year's Tax Freedom Day was calculated to be April 11, the earliest in 37 years. The foundation employs a relatively simple formula that divides total tax receipts and total national income by the number of taxpayers, calculates the percentage of average income going to taxes, and figures out how many days it would take to pay that bill (assuming no other spending).
The Tax Foundation calculates that the average American will pay 17.9 percent of income in federal taxes in 2004. But that finding is inaccurate because it fails to take into account the progressive nature of the U.S. tax system. Because a small percentage of wealthy Americans pay a disproportionately higher share of their income in taxes, their tax payments can exaggerate the average tax bill paid by middle-income families.
The liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities concluded that households in the middle fifth of the income distribution will pay an average of 14.7 percent of income in federal taxes this year. That amounts to a 22 percent exaggeration that would move Tax Freedom Day back about 11 days. And this is actually the smallest error the Tax Foundation has made in recent years. CBPP found that the group's calculation overstated the estimated average tax rate for households in the middle income quintile by 26 percent in 2002 and 28 percent in 2003.
Although the group has engaged in the same deceptive analysis year after year, journalists continue to report it as fact. Outlets that have already reported the new misleading Tax Freedom Day include Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume, New York Newsday, the Miami Herald, and United Press International.
In the end, what's being taxed is voters' patience.
See also:
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Apr. 8, 2004.
Disinfopedia
Media Transparency
Notice anything special about those dates? Today John Kerry gave a speech in which he claimed Americans are actually paying more taxes under Bush, despite the tax cuts. He gave no explanation and provided no data for this claim. Another interesting fact: both George Bush and John Kerry are wealthy men. John Kerry is worth well over $1Billion. George W. Bush is worth only about $30 Million. Bush owns only one home, his ranch in Texas. Kerry owns 4 mansions, all worth several million dollars. (His ski resort home in Idaho is an old barn brought over from Europe in pieces. Not your average A-frame).
The aggregate value of these five homes is roughly $29 million, but the claim that John Kerry "owns" all of these properties is problematic. John and Teresa Kerry signed a prenuptial agreement and have kept their premarital assets separate.
The Boston townhouse (which John Kerry mortgaged in 2003 to finance his presidential bid) is the only one of these homes that they own as a couple; the other four belonged to Teresa before her 1995 marriage to John Kerry, and some of them are even still listed under the name of her late husband.
Snopes
Bush paid $250,000 in taxes this year; Kerry paid $90,000. Does that sound right? The man who wants to raise your taxes obviously has figured out a way to avoid paying his own.
As stated above, Kerry signed a prenuptial agreement and he and his wife have kept their premarital assets separate. John Kerry had $395,000 in taxable income (almost half of Bush’s) in 2003 and paid $90,575 in federal income taxes, or 23% of his income. His wife paid $750,000 in Federal, State and local income taxes, 14.7 % of the $5.1 million in income. In 2003, Bush paid $227,490 on an income of $727,083, or 31 %.
See also:
Tax Foundation’s letter asking Phillip Morris to “renew its support”·
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