Quote Originally Posted by JennB View Post
I never post on here but I had to respond to this. You can easily not pay sales tax, live in a state that doesn't have sales tax and don't travel.



Yes, it is possible to pay no taxes or to be a tax consumer in the US.

First, not all states have sales tax. Second, not all states have income tax.

If you live in a state with no sales tax, you can have a low income, get EIC and have no taxable income at the state or federal level. The EIC can be up to and even over $5,000, which is more than you could possibly pay in mandatory Social Security and Medicare taxes. Those are taxes no one can get out of. If you make the absolute maximum salary to receive EIC, you will pay $3,845 in SS and Med taxes (at the regular, not currently reduced rates) but you'll receive EIC of $5,891. So you've paid no sales tax, have 0% effective tax rate, you paid SS and Med but you received EIC of more than what you paid. The bottom line is if you live in a state with no sales tax and have a low income, it's not that unusual to pay very little or no tax at all. Most very low income people are not homeowners, so they don't pay tax on their dwelling, not all states impose excise tax on vehicles. If you want to get technical, you can attribute the property tax on their home to them since they are indirectly paying it by paying rent, but it's not like a person with a $20K per year income is in a home with a high property tax bill.

If you live in a state with no income tax, it all depends on how much of your income you spend on taxable goods. Since most people with lower income spend a higher percentage of their pay on non-taxed housing expenses, they pay easily end up paying no or very little net taxes when all federal, state and local taxes are considered.




As for the actual topic at hand, the girl in this story is a moron. She's entitled trash. But... I'm not worried about it. That money will all be gone soon. A fool and his (her) money are easily parted. She'll pump some money back into businesses and be right back where she started.
You should hear the stories from my friend who works at the IRS call center in Pittsburgh.

Thank you for backing all of us up and pr0ving what we say is true.