To the editor:
The best method to boil a frog is place one in a pan of merely warm water. The frog will swim around in a content manner. By slowly turning the heat up, the unsuspecting frog eventually cooks.Has anyone noticed our taxes have shifted from lukewarm? It is getting dangerously hot for family financial security. Upper-income taxpayers are getting clobbered. If you have an adjusted gross income of more than $150,000 and have a large family and many itemized deductions, here's what you can look forward to:
Top tax rates have moved from 28 percent to 31 percent; most itemized deductions are being reduced; the amount of income subject to the Medicare payroll tax increased; deductions such as charitable contributions, mortgage interest, state and local taxes, moving costs and miscellaneous items will be reduced, costing us thousands of dollars. The net effect of all these punitive actions is a tax rate of approximately 32 percent, not 31 percent.
The allowed medical and dental deductions have such a high threshold that hardly anyone qualifies; married couples filing jointly will find the personal exemption of $2,150 per person vaporizing and phased out soon; no consumer loan interest is deductible any longer; if you borrow to buy bonds, stock and other securities, you can only deduct investment interest up to the amount of your total investment income; capital gains have been reduced by approximately 5 percent, depending on your marginal tax rate; even the alternative minimum tax rose from 21 percent to 24 percent in one year.
Somehow I need to better understand why my personal savings are being depleted to pay increased taxes. Someone needs to explain why I no longer have any desire to pursue investment properties.
No, I am not a right-wing radical tax warrior. I am not a tax attorney or CPA. I'm just a hard-working family man. But I find myself being forced to focus on the temperature of the kettle I'm boiling in.
John M. Knab
Midvale