Did you know that the richest 10% in this country pays 60% of the taxes?

Question

Is this really fair,or would a flat tax where everyone contributes be more equitable?

For those of you who don't believe the stats see best answer below from dapixelator.

Answer 1

For those of you who don't belive this, it is true. The facts are roughly right. I also did calcs based on data from IRS Site (2003 data)

The top 1% of taxpayers by income pay 33% of all individual income taxes, and 22.7% of all federal taxes.
The top 5% of taxpayers pay 54.5% of all individual income taxes, and 38.5% of all federal taxes.
The top 10% of taxpayers pay 67.4% of all individual income taxes, and 50% of all federal taxes.
The top quintile (20%) pays 82.5% of all individual income taxes, and 65.3% of all federal taxes.

For you class-war mongers--the top 20% of Individual tax returns include people who make over $75k per year. Hardly "Rich"

Those who make < $75k per year account for 37% of total income
Those who make >$75k per year account for 62% of total income

The lower 80% of returns had roughly 38% of the income but paid 27% of individual taxes.

So even taking income into account, those who are in upper quintile STILL pay more than their "fair share" as compared to the income the receive.

I really would like somebody to explain how this constitutes "fair".
Because somebody went to school, worked hard, got a good job, they should pay more as a percentage of their income? Those who didn't work hard to get ahead should pay less (as a percentage of their income)?

So, not only do higher wage earners pay more in tax rates, they pay more in absolute terms.

For those of you who don't belive or discount, you should do your own research.

Our tax system is most definitely progressive not regressive.

Now, we haven't even touched on Sales taxes-- those are for the most part regressive. But that's another debate.

Answer 2

Some of the richest people in the country don't pay what's fair, or even what they should. Look at Kennedy or many others in government. They keep money off shore to hide it from the IRS.

The numbers may or may not be absolutely accurate, but are basically right. If the richest pay most of the taxes, they should more of the tax cuts.

What the country needs is less socialism with some paying more proportionally than others, and more democracy where you would pay the same flat rate on $100 or $10,000,000.

Answer 3

The US has continually had a innovative tax constitution. The wealthy pay a greater % of greenbacks when you consider that they have got the cash to pay. The Bush tax cuts are unsuitable when you consider that they produced colossal deficits and expanded the countrywide debt. Arguments like those you are making, or the corollary argument that sales broaden beneath Reagan/Bush tax cuts, also are off factor. It is the online outcome that's of difficulty. We can't maintain, longer term, to broaden the countrywide debt and stay solvent. The Bush tax cuts produced deficits and expanded the countrywide debt. They have been the unsuitable factor to do for all however the richest few % of persons within the nation. And long term, they're going to serve the richest people poorly as good.

Answer 4

Sorry I don't care where you get your data. If you have, oh say,a yearly income of $25,000 your taxes are in the vicinity of $2,000. If your income is 1 Million and your taxes are, with all the breaks you get, $65,000. You are paying more than I make in a year , true. More than in two actually but are you carrying the bulk of the load. NO because you can pay a mortgage, own a Hummer, send your kids to college ( ivy league at that) live in a gorgeous house and neighborhood. While the rest of us can't make ends meet. They may pay more then us but it means nothing to their lifestyles. If we all payed 10% even 15% I would than pay $250 to $375 a year and they would pay $100.000 or $150,000 and we would have no national debt and could all live a little better. And with their money they wouldn't even feel it.

Answer 5

Honey, the middle class supports this country. The middle class supports the rich and the poor alike. Should I feel bad about someone in a 10 million dollar home with a 100 foot yacht paying more taxes than me? They still have enough money left to travel the world, I barely have enough to get to work.

Answer 6

Well first of all, I don't believe that for a minute. Second, they should pay more in tax. It's not fair for people on 10k a year to pay out the same amount of tax as someone on 100k.
I mean, if someone on 10k paid 10% tax, they would still have 9k, and someone on 100k could pay 90% in tax and still have more left over and if someone on 100k paid 50% in tax, they'd still have 50k but if the 10k people did that, they'd only have 5k so it's perfectly fair that higher earners pay higher taxes.

Answer 7

I think a flat tax would be the most fair. People who make more money spend more money and buy more expensive things, thereby contributing more. I do not believe in taxing wealthier people at a higher per centage just because they have more.

Answer 8

That is only because they make millions/sometimes billions of dollars each compared to our thousands of dollars. They actually pay less taxes because they get more tax breaks and the tax laws are written to make the rich richer. There need to be more laws to help the ones on the other end of the scale, not the richer ones.

Answer 9

You pay taxes on the money you have, weather it's a lot or a little, so that's fair. If you're rich you can afford it anyway. Besides the rich get a lot of tax breaks

Answer 10

Or, to look at it another way:
he least wealthy 60 percent of Americans have less than 5 percent of the wealth in the U.S. but pay more than 14 percent of federal taxes.
The wealthiest 5 percent have 59% of the wealth and pay 38.4 percent of federal taxes. The wealthiest 1 percent have over 38 percent of the wealth and pay 24.8 percent of federal taxes. These households have an average wealth of $10.2 million and pay only 3.5 percent of their wealth in taxes. By way of comparison, the bottom 40 percent of taxpayers have an average net wealth of $1,100 and pay 163 percent of their net wealth in taxes.