Being a former accountant, I keep my ear to the ground on taxes. Being conservative in my politics, I find a never ending task in battling liberal demagoguery concerning taxes. The classic, never questioned, liberal position is the rich don't pay their fair share in taxes. Well, a simple review of IRS figures shows otherwise. The liberals have set up a straw man begging to be knocked down. However, when the mainstream media carries water for the liberal politician, expect no such challenge to a long-standing absurdity.
As of 2005, here is how the IRS numbers stack up:
Top 1% pay 39.34% of Tax burden
Top 5% pay 59.67% of Tax burden
Top 10% pay 70.30% of Tax burden
Top 25% pay 85.99% of Tax burden
Top 50% pay 96.93% of Tax burden
So, the poorest in America don't pay any taxes. In fact, the top 1% pay MORE in taxes than before Bush's so-called tax cuts for the rich up from 33.96% of tax burden in 2001.
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2 comments:
Hey Mac!
I'd be interested in hearing more about this. It makes sense to me that the richest are going to represent a higher percentage of the total amount of tax taken because they earned more money.
What those stats didn't address is what the total percent of earnings paid as tax is as you go down the scale. For example, if the top 1% pay $39.39 of every $100 in tax, then 2-5% pay $20.28 per $100. If the top 1% are outearning the 2-5% group by enough, they are still paying less of an overall percentage of their earnings even though it appears that they're paying more.
I'd also be interested to know what the earnings median is in the U.S. so we know the cutoff between the top fifty percent and the bottom fifty percent.
Have a good one!
Kerry, I hope this helps:
In 2006, the median annual household income was $48,201.00 according to the US Census Bureau. The top 1% earned 21% of the income and pay 40% of the taxes. The top 5% earned 35.7% of the income and pay 59.7% of taxes. The top 10% earned 46.4% of the income and pay 70.3% of the taxes.
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