This story is from the Tax Foundation.
Newly released data from the IRS clearly debunks the conventional Beltway rhetoric that the "rich" are not paying their fair share of taxes and disproportionately benefited from the Bush tax cuts.
Indeed, the IRS data shows that in 2007—the most recent data available—the top 1 percent of taxpayers paid 40.4 percent of the total income taxes collected by the federal government. This is the highest percentage in modern history. By contrast, the top 1 percent paid 24.8 percent of the income tax burden in 1987, the year following the 1986 tax reform act.
Remarkably, the share of the tax burden borne by the top 1 percent now exceeds the share paid by the bottom 95 percent of taxpayers combined. In 2007, the bottom 95 percent paid 39.4 percent of the income tax burden. This is down from the 58 percent of the total income tax burden they paid twenty years ago.
To put this in perspective, the top 1 percent is comprised of just 1.4 million taxpayers and they pay a larger share of the income tax burden now than the bottom 134 million taxpayers combined.
Some in Washington say the tax system is still not progressive enough. However, the recent IRS data bolsters the findings of an OECD study released last year showing that the U.S.—not France or Sweden—has the most progressive income tax system among OECD nations. We rely more heavily on the top 10 percent of taxpayers than does any nation and our poor people have the lowest tax burden of those in any nation.
We are definitely overdue for some honesty in the debate over the progressivity of the nation's tax burden before lawmakers enact any new taxes to pay for expanded health care.
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2 comments:
Imagine an economy where you had 1.4 million swells who lorded it over the 134 million serfs who did the actual labor. To fund and operate the government, you can't very well take the rags from the backs of the serfs. You're forced to tax the swells. And then some economist will decry the patent unfairness of the tax system.
These stats are a reflection of America's system of the "haves" and the "have nots".
When people are hopeless, they drop-out.
This reinforces that there are more people on the government dole and/or unwilling, unable to work. Many can't find meaningful work.
The rich (who have most of the money) are going to pay a disproportionate percentage.
It doesn't mean that the rich are "overtaxed" by any measure.
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