Top 1% Now Pays More in Tax Than Bottom 95%
<http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_otfwl2zc6Qc/SnEW1Z5CWdI/AAAAAAAAKwA/mLCOj5u3j
K4/s1600-h/taxes.jpg> TAX POLICY BLOG
<http://www.taxfoundation.org/blog/show/24944.html> – Newly released
data from the IRS
<http://www.irs.gov/taxstats/indtaxstats/article/0,,id=133521,00.html>
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% of taxpayers paid 40.4% of the total income taxes
collected by the federal government. This is the highest percentage in
modern history. By contrast, the top 1% paid 24.8% of the income tax
burden in 1987, the year following the 1986 tax reform act (see chart
above).
Remarkably, the share of the tax burden borne by the top 1% now exceeds
the share paid by the bottom 95% of taxpayers combined. In 2007, the
bottom 95% paid 39.4% of the income tax burden. This is down from the
58% of the total income tax burden they paid twenty years ago.
To put this in perspective, the top 1% 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% 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.
(Attachment image001.jpg is missing)