Tax Code Simplified

I borrowed this. It is too good to pass up

Tax Code Simplified
Since today is Wealth Confiscation Tax Day in the United States, I thought I would post this explanation of our tax code that has been sent to me by many readers.
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that's what they decided to do.
The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until on day, the owner threw them a curve. "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20."Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men --- the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?' They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay. And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).
Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings. "I only got a dollar out of the $20,"declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man," but he got $10!"
"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar, too.
It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!"
"That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!"
"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
For those who understand, no explanation is needed. For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.
In the real world of "Bush" tax cuts the advantage to the rich is even less than the above example. The government never cuts the bar tab or the tax bill by 20% and the rich saw the top tax bracket drop from 39% to 37% resulting in a 5% savings or about $3 not the $10 in the bar example. Likewise the lowest income bar patrons DID get plenty. They got an increase in the earned income child care credit from $600 to $1000 even though they pay zero taxes. Those in the lowest tax paying bracket saw the rate drop from 15% to 10 % resulting in a 33% reduction in taxes. But if you are a Journalist, this does not fit the liberal media template, so the headline reads "BUSH TAX CUT FAVOR THE RICH"!!Now back to me. Another way the LSM demonizes the eeevil rich is in talking about their tax refunds. For example, last year Dick Cheney got a big refund. Teresa Big Boobs, who used to comment on this site, went ballistic. How could Cheney get such a huge refund? It's unfair. Now I and several readers tried to explain to her that the reason he got such a huge refund was because he had overpaid his taxes. Now Teresa is a liberal. No matter how we tried to explain this to her she still clung to her beliefs that Cheney's tax refund was unfair. And that's just what the LSM was trying to do. In the headline was the amount of his tax refund. Far down in the story was how much he actually paid, and it was a signifucant amount.
Here's the deal. Americans are stupid when it comes to taxes. Boortz usually writes about this on Gummint bloodsucking Tax Day. Ask the average American how much he pays in taxes and the reply will usually be, "I didn't pay anything. I got money back."
And that's the beauty of the withholding system. Americans don'trealize how much they actually pay. The withholding system was a "temporary" system to help fund WWII. As with most "temporary" gummint programs, it somehow became permanent. See the telephone tax to fund the Spanish American War that was finally stopped this year.