Six ways the rich really do get richer

2. Tax breaks are good – especially if you’re rich

Mike Theiler/Reuters/File
US President George Bush makes remarks following a meeting with congressional leaders at the US Capitol, after House and Senate conferees hammered out a compromise 10-year $318 billion tax cut in 2003. Vice President Dick Cheney (left), who brokered the agreement, and House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R) of Illinois, look on. The Bush tax cuts meant that the wealthy got the biggest refund checks.

As we said in How the Price of Milk Might Lower Your 2012 Taxes, inflation-indexed tax brackets and exemptions translate to lower taxes for all taxpayers. But if you’re a single filer with taxable income of $50,000, you’ll only save $95 in 2012 over 2011. A couple filing a joint return with taxable income of $450,000 will pay $732 less. Granted, the wealthier couple also paid a lot more in income taxes, but when you consider the amount of money that results from tax breaks, you’re talking Mercedes payment vs. cell phone bill.

Mother Jones has more eye-popping numbers regarding taxes in this article. One example…

Bush’s tax cuts gave a 2-child family earning $1 million an extra $86,722 – or Harvard tuition, room, board, and an iMac G5 for both kids. A 2-child family earning $50,000 gets $2,050 -or 1/5 the cost of public college for one kid.

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