Whenever you point out how much of the federal income tax burden is carried by the top 1% of the income scale, some progressive will point out that it’s misleading because it doesn’t take into account non-income taxes. Now the center-left Tax Policy Center has a thousand words on the subject, taking into account all federal taxes:
And another 1,000 words for those folks who embrace the David Cay Johnston thesis about how the really, really rich folks get away with murder:
These are, of course, the average rates. The marginal rate — the rate on each additional dollar — is much higher.
The results may be different for the top .001%, because you only get there normally by selling your business and having a big one-time capital gain, which will be taxed at a lower rate. Do we have a special tax system for a few hundred people just to deal with that sort of a statistical anomaly? Sounds dumb to me.
Via the TaxProf.
Related: Sure I’ll have another Crown Royal. Make it a double. The rich guy is buying.
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Take a look at the data from Citizens for Tax Justice. Keep in mind that number crunching people at Cato, Heritage and the GWBush administration all have said CTJ is scrupulous with their interpretations.
CTJ’s report on share of income paid in all taxes (fed, state and local) shows that the poorest 60 million Americans on an average income of just $12,000 pay almost 19 percent of their income to government and that the 90-99th percentiles pay a greater share of their income than the top 1%.
The data is at
http://www.ctj.org/pdf/taxday2009.pdf