Markets in a Nutshell
April 12, 2010 Issue
The stock market continued moving up last week. The Dow briefly climbed above 11,000 for the first time in 18 months before pulling back slightly – up 0.6% for the week and up 5.5% YTD. The S&P 500 climbed 1.4% for the week and is up 7.1% for the year. The Nasdaq was up 2.1% for the week and is now up 8.1% for the year. The Barclays Aggregate Bond Index is up 1.6% so far this year.
Have you filed your taxes yet? Tax day (April 15) arrives this week and with it some interesting statistics. According to the Tax Policy Center, 47% of American households won’t pay any income tax for the 2009 tax year. Just 5 years ago this number was at 38%. Mark Steyn wrote in an April 10 article published in the National Review Online that “for an increasing number of Americans, tax season is like baseball season: it’s a spectator sport.”
So who is paying the taxes? According to the Tax Policy Center, the top 10% of taxpayers shoulder 73% of the taxes. The top 5% of tax payers pay more than 60%. Mark Steyn went on to suggest that by the 2012 election a majority of the population may be able to “vote themselves more government lollipops paid for by the ever shrinking minority of the population” who actually pay taxes.
Think about it – with our national debt skyrocketing, it’s inevitable that taxes will be going up. Seems to me that everyone should have some skin in the game – and bear at least some of the cost of all this government spending – if we are ever to reverse this trend. After all, where’s the incentive to support lower taxes or decreased spending if you don’t pay income tax in the first place? Food for though when you file your tax return.