SEEK said “20% of the American population owns 80% of the wealth”
KNOW THE FACTS…
Under the U.S. income tax system, most of the taxes collected are supposed to be paid by the people who make the most money. Thanks to President Bush’s tax cuts, that is exactly the way the system works, says the U.S. Treasury Department.
According to the Office of Tax Analysis, the U.S. individual income tax is “highly progressive,” with a small group of higher-income taxpayers paying most of the individual income taxes each year.
In 2002 the latest year of available data, the top 5 percent of taxpayers paid more than one-half (53.8 percent) of all individual income taxes, but reported roughly one-third (30.6 percent) of income.
The top 1 percent of taxpayers paid 33.7 percent of all individual income taxes in 2002. This group of taxpayers has paid more than 30 percent of individual income taxes since 1995. Moreover, since 1990 this group’s tax share has grown faster than their income share.
Taxpayers who rank in the top 50 percent of taxpayers by income pay virtually all individual income taxes. In all years since 1990, taxpayers in this group have paid over 94 percent of all individual income taxes. In 2000, 2001, and 2002, this group paid over 96 percent of the total.
Treasury Department analysts credit President Bush’s tax cuts with shifting a larger share of the individual income taxes paid to higher income taxpayers. In 2005, says the Treasury, when most of the tax cut provisions are fully in effect (e.g., lower tax rates, the $1,000 child credit, marriage penalty relief), the projected tax share for lower-income taxpayers will fall, while the tax share for higher-income taxpayers will rise.
The share of taxes paid by the bottom 50 percent of taxpayers will fall from 4.1 percent to 3.6 percent.
The share of taxes paid by the top 1 percent of taxpayers will rise from 32.3 percent to 33.7 percent.
The average tax rate for the bottom 50 percent of taxpayers falls by 27 percent as compared to a 13 percent decline for taxpayers in the top 1 percent.
The White House has announced it will lobby Congress to pass legislation making most of President Bush’s tax cutting measures permanent.
Source: U.S. Treasury, Office of Tax Analysis
usgovinfo.about.com/od/incometaxandtheirs/a/whopaysmost.htm
Of course they pay more-- they’re richer! I’m talking about a redistribution of wealth back to Hoover, Pre- Roosevelt percentages. What real percentage of income do they pay though- NOT how much do they pay. What’s their Capital Gains
tax rate? What percentage of Social Security tax do they pay?
The poor in this country do not pay Federal Income Tax…I am not saying that is a bad thing. The bad is they are still poor…right where the Democrats want them. The Democrats once known in the South as the Dixiecrats the same Democrats who were responsible for segregation, Jim Crow laws and the terrorist wing of the Democrats the Ku Klux Klan do not want to help the nations poor minorities they intentionally keep them oppressed. It keeps them out of there Country Clubs and out of there children’s schools…the new segregation is to pretend you are the friends of the very people you oppress. Don’t be fooled by the Democrats…voting Republican helps the poor and they are the platform of Pro-Life not the Democrats no matter how you sugar coat it.
