http://dailysignal.com/2017/10/18/rich-pay-fair-share-numbers/
Politicians exploit public ignorance. Few areas of public ignorance provide as many opportunities for political demagoguery as taxation.
Today some politicians argue that the rich must pay their fair share and label the proposed changes in tax law as tax cuts for the rich.
Let's look at who pays what, with an eye toward attempting to answer this question: Are the rich paying their fair share?
According to the latest IRS data, the payment of income taxes is as follows.
The top 1 percent of income earners, those having an adjusted annual gross income of $480,930 or higher, pay about 39 percent of federal income taxes. That means about 892,000 Americans are stuck with paying 39 percent of all federal taxes.
The top 10 percent of income earners, those having an adjusted gross income over $138,031, pay about 70.6 percent of federal income taxes.
$138,031 of Adjusted Gross Income - not very much to be a part of the top 10%, eh?!
About 1.7 million Americans, less than 1 percent of our population, pay 70.6 percent of federal income taxes. Is that fair, or do you think they should pay more?
By the way, earning $500,000 a year doesn't make one rich. It's not even yacht money.
But the fairness question goes further. The bottom 50 percent of income earners, those having an adjusted gross income of $39,275 or less, pay 2.83 percent of federal income taxes.
Thirty-seven million tax filers have no tax obligation at all. The Tax Policy Center estimates that 45.5 percent of households will not pay federal income tax this year. ...
And, in fact, a whole lot of those "tax filers" who do not pay ANY income tax also get refunds of their Social Security taxes in the form of the "Earned Income Credit." So, they are not paying ANY income taxes and are not paying all or any of their Social Security taxes - but, they are credited with paying all of their Social Security taxes (even though they most certainly did not) when it comes time for them to claim Social Security benefits!
The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. ~ D.H. Lawrence
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