http://www.philadelphiadentalassociates.com

Even as a small business owner, I look at my years income and decide where I am going to invest my income back into my business or elsewhere to reduce my income taxes. If you are really an attorney and victimized by the system and can't figure out how to lower your tax burden then you get what you deserve and I believe you are not working as hard as you say you are. Stop being so stupid and crying about what business owners and leaned people have been doing legally for years.

See you guys over there.

I think in a (nearly) perfect world, we would have a flat income tax and either a VAT or consumption tax. Unfortunately, either probably would kill the economy at this point.

I think we also would maintain social safety nets but put time limits on them. Enforced education and job training, WPA-style programs, and military service could be options.

The contributor who comments on the dentist's income is right; the increased income tax represents a marginal rate. You do realize diminishing marginal returns as your income goes up in our tax code, but your after tax home income does not decrease due to this increase.

But wait, the other parts of the new tax plan may decrease after tax income. These include the loss of the charity deduction and the recalculation of the mortgage interest deduction from the marginal tax rate over $250K to 28%.

The charity and mortgage interest deduction eliminations, frankly, were stupid. Degrees of altruism aside, how much you can deduct for many people will alter the amount given or the gifts to "second choice" charities.

A better way would have been to tie charity deductions to consumption (take home income-savings). People who have $100K of consumption per year most likely have less latitude in charitable giving than those who have $300K of consumption per year. This is going to hurt charities.

Finally, this tax plan is nothing new; it's just bigger. Anyone who has lived with AMT realizes that.

I would like to consider myself a man of principle, and being a God fearing Christian, I am reminded every Sunday to help my fellow man. How, though, am I supposed to want to help someone who is clearly an able-bodied individual who has come to expect hand-outs without so much as a drop of his own sweat? After all, God helps those who help themselves, right? Faceless government agencies have proven time and again that they are too large and shoddily run to effectively weed out the abusers of what is no longer even considered a privelege but now is a right. I was not taught, nor will I teach my children, that it is O.K. to give a minimal amount of effort and abuse the largesse of others.

I worked hard for everything I own by the sweat of my brow. The callouses on my hands remind me every day that I am at least trying to do my part. And how dare ANYONE tell me that my desire for something better for my family(i.e.; a larger home, a more comfortable life) amounts to greed and avarice! And why can't I, or my church, or some other small and personable community organization decide as to who will aid from me? I want to look in a person's eyes and know that they are honest and sincere about making their own way. And a young physically viable man with no job, three children from three different women, and a souped up car with chrome rims that COST MORE THAN MY WORK TRUCK is not that person.