Daddy, what’s wrong?
It’s these tax bills, son.
Grandpa and Grandma don’t pay taxes anymore, and we just can’t pay all of their share.
The town is closing your school because they don’t have the money and you and your sister will have to go to the other side of town.
Gee daddy, that doesn’t seem fair.
I don’t think so either.
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
Easy for you to say. Your perspective is twisted. For someone that had a leadership role with a handsome salary, a pension, 401k plan, and savings, living in an upper crust home…..A large part of the nation does not have that. You can preach how you worked hard at a young age, worked your way up, etc. Many work just as hard and struggle till the end. You happened to be lucky, and that is it.
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About 40% of all households pay no federal and no/minimal state income tax. Unsurprisingly, the percentage of American households with someone age 65+ who pay no federal income taxes is higher, almost 45%.
The problem with Social Security taxation is the structure. No one would complain (at least no reasonable person would complain) if individuals would be able to identify and confirm that they received their contributions back first, tax free (as they were paid after federal income taxes). After that, any employer contribution received, and any additional monies that they did not fund themselves should be taxable income … same as it would be from a retirement plan.
Long past time for the idiots in the Beltway to simplify this process and make it transparent.
Long past time to ignore Americans who complian that their special status (age, dependents, race, marital status, lower wages, step up basis (farms, etc.)) should exempt them from paying income taxes.
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What perspective is that? The idea that paying for a society should be spread across all members and there is no point when that is not true, especially based on age? No one has paid their dues.
Low income citizens before or during their retirement pay taxes according to their means which is little or no income tax in many cases. The journey to retirement is 40 or more years, so there is no excuse to reach that goal and then claim taxes are a financial burden. The effective tax rate for the bottom 50% of income Americans is about 3.7%. Hardly a burden.
Property taxes have been used by communities since the 1840s, why suddenly now are they unfair?
Most of all, it is unfair to shift added taxes to younger families trying to plan their own retirement, provide an education for their children, etc.
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