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October 19, 2008

Why Joe the Plumber is Important

By Tom Dolan



The now overexposed Joe the Plumber is important because he asked the right question, would he pay more under Obama's tax plan. However, he may be the wrong example. The problem was many newscasts confused "making" $250,000 as his potential salary instead of gross revenue before expenses. They needed to explain how your personal tax liability is computed. Joe himself made less than $40,000 last year. He was asking about taxes for a business that grossed $250K.
The news story that is relevant would be how much would you pay under McCain’s Plan v. Obama’s Plan. What is taxable income and how much would a small business person owe? Then there is the issue of whether you file individually or as a business.
As ABC News reported, 95% of small businesses make less than 200K. In this well done report, John Berman explains correctly what taxpayers need to consider.
The Poynter Institute's Al Tompkins summarized the issue in a very thorough way in this "Morning Meeting" column on the subject. Be sure to click on "Read the entire post."
These type stories frequently revive the ongoing debate about rewriting the tax code with a Flat Tax approach. This web site from the Heritatge Foundation details why this tax would be fairer, save accounting overhead, and be a huge time saver for taxpayers and the government.




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