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What percentage of federal income tax is paid by the wealthy? |
Answer
Well, I'm not sure where you define wealthy...but the upper 50% of the wage earners pay @97% of all tax collections, and the lower ones only @3%. The upper of the upper pay a disproportionate share of that too, the Top 1% of earners = 37% of taxes paid, the next bracket 2-5% accounts for another 20%. So about 57% paid by the top 5%. Especially as this is for Personal Income Tax only, and many of the more wealthy have much of the income taxed (some would say double taxed) by in the Corporate returns of those corporations they control/own.
Also, this is of those filing returns. The percentage of people whose income is, because of deductions/exemptions below where they have to file returns, and with things like Earned Income tax credits, actually get more back than they might pay, is huge...something like 40% of the populace. And of course, the lower earners pay at much reduced rate anyway.
Some quick statistics: The top 1% of earners pay 21.20% of all taxes paid at an average rate of 24%, the top 2 - 5% of earners pay 14.55% of all taxes at an average of 18% (Top 5% pay @36% of all tax) The bottom 50% pay 3% of all tax collected at an average rate of 2.98%.
See link for full discussion, and chart that holds format.
Number of Returns with Positive AGI
AGI ($ millions)
Income Taxes Paid ($ millions)
Group's Share of Total AGI
Group's Share of Income Taxes
Income Split Point
Average Tax Rate
All Taxpayers
130,371,156
$6,875,123
$831,890
100.00%
100.00%
-
12.10%
Top 1%
1,303,712
$1,306,417
$306,902
19.00%
36.89%
> $328,049
23.49%
Top 2-5%
5,214,846
$993,178
$168,322
14.45%
20.23%
16.95%
Top 5%
6,518,558
$2,299,595
$475,224
33.45%
57.13%
> $137,056
20.67%
Top 6-10%
6,518,558
$749,680
$92,049
10.90%
11.07%
12.28%
Top 10%
13,037,116
$3,049,275
$567,273
44.35%
68.19%
> $99,112
18.60%
Top 11-25%
19,555,673
$1,497,126
$138,642
21.78%
16.67%
9.26%
Top 25%
32,592,789
$4,546,401
$705,915
66.13%
84.86%
> $60,041
15.53%
Top 26-50%
32,592,789
$1,406,380
$98,556
20.46%
11.85%
7.01%
Top 50%
65,185,578
$5,952,781
$804,471
86.58%
96.70%
> $30,122
13.51%
Bottom 50%
65,185,578
922,342
27,419
13.42%
3.30%
> $30,122
2.97%
See Related Links
See the Related Links for "http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/250.html" to the bottom for the answer.
First answer by IamLostRU. Last edit by IamLostRU. Contributor trust: 732 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 6 [recommend question]
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