Why do the rich have to pay all the taxes?

Question

The Top 50% pay 96.54% of All Income Taxes
(The top 1% pay more than a third: 34.27%)

October 4, 2005

This is the data for calendar year 2003 just released in October 2005 by the Internal Revenue Service. The share of total income taxes paid by the top 1% of wage earners rose to 34.27% from 33.71% in 2002. Their income share (not just wages) rose from 16.12% to 16.77%. However, their average tax rate actually dropped from 27.25% down to 24.31%


*Data covers calendar year 2003, not fiscal year 2003
- and includes all income, not just wages, excluding Social Security
Think of it this way: less than 3-1/2 dollars out of every $100 paid in income taxes in the United States is paid by someone in the bottom 50% of wage earners. Are the top half millionaires? Noooo, more like "thousandaires." The top 50% were those individuals or couples filing jointly who earned $29,019 and up in 2003. (The top 1% earned $295,495-plus.) Americans who want to are continuing to improve their lives, and those who don't want to, aren't. Here are the wage earners in each category and the percentages they pay:
The top 1% pay over a third, 34.27% of all income taxes. (Up from 2003: 33.71%) The top 5% pay 54.36% of all income taxes (Up from 2002: 53.80%). The top 10% pay 65.84% (Up from 2002: 65.73%). The top 25% pay 83.88% (Down from 2002: 83.90%). The top 50% pay 96.54% (Up from 2002: 96.50%). The bottom 50%? They pay a paltry 3.46% of all income taxes (Down from 2002: 3.50%). The top 1% is paying nearly ten times the federal income taxes than the bottom 50%! And who earns what? The top 1% earns 16.77% of all income (2002: 16.12%). The top 5% earns 31.18% of all the income (2002: 30.55%). The top 10% earns 42.36% of all the income (2002: 41.77%); the top 25% earns 64.86% of all the income (2002: 64.37%) , and the top 50% earns 86.01% (2002: 85.77%) of all the income.

I have made an executive decision as the owner and ultimate editor of this website that this table and these numbers stay on this website forever - updated when each year's numbers come out, of course. In order to get these facts, you have to see them each and every day. This story, along with a link to the IRS chart, will stay somewhere on the RushLimbaugh.com homepage so everyone can see and find these numbers at any time. It's crucial that people get this, so please, share it with a friend now!
The Rich Earned Their Dough, They Didn't Inherit It (Except Ted Kennedy)
October 10, 2003

The bottom 50% is paying a tiny bit of the taxes, so you can't give them much of a tax cut by definition. Yet these are the people to whom the Democrats claim to want to give tax cuts. Remember this the next time you hear the "tax cuts for the rich" business. Understand that the so-called rich are about the only ones paying taxes anymore.

I had a conversation with a woman who identified herself as Misty on Wednesday. She claimed to be an accountant, yet she seemed unaware of the Alternative Minimum Tax, which now ensures that everyone pays some taxes. AP reports that the AMT, "designed in 1969 to ensure 155 wealthy people paid some tax," will hit "about 2.6 million of us this year and 36 million by 2010." That's because the tax isn't indexed for inflation! If your salary today would've made you mega-rich in '69, that's how you're taxed.

Misty tried the old line that all wealth is inherited. Not true. John Weicher, as a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank, wrote in his February 13, 1997 Washington Post Op-Ed, "Most of the rich have earned their wealth... Looking at the Fortune 400, quite a few even of the very richest people came from a standing start, while others inherited a small business and turned it into a giant corporation." What's happening here is not that "the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer." The numbers prove it.
Check Out the UPDATED IRS Table of Numbers from CY 2003...
(The IRS: Individual Income Tax Returns Each Tax Year 1985 - 2003)
{Requires EXCEL to View}

• Rush's Coverage of the Previous IRS Data: here
Read the Article...
(AP: Obscure minimum tax will affect 36 million by 2010)

Answer 1

Are you asking a question or writing an essay?

Answer 2

hmmmmm: The rich essentially pay the same percentage of taxes that the "middle" class does although there is a scale of taxation it is really not statistically different from one group to another. The less money collected in taxes the more money is spent or invested and it has to be one or the other. The more money spent or invested, the higher the GDP goes and since taxes are a percentage of GDP the more money is collected in taxes. The Clinton recession reduced GDP to 3% until FY 2004, after the Bush Tax cuts were actually felt, and then GDP went up (6%), increasing the money collected in taxes. The Clinton deficit of 2003 was 23% and the 2006 deficit was 9% so cutting taxes reduced the deficit by about 60% in three years. You can get the data at gpoaccess.gov or bea.gov. Bottom line is: Yes, I agree that the Pro-Slavery. Anti-civil-rights Democrats are just trying to oppress people the way they always have.

Answer 3

Well, the rich do pay most of the federal taxes, and local but some taxes regressive on the low end, and high end of the wage scales. Household income taxes get nailed with the AMT tax which should be abolished, and flat tax like eastern europe would free up 300 billion dollars of deadweight in the economy because collecting the tax is transparent. IRS needs to go bye, bye, and IRS policies favors people know the tax code make a living off of it. The liberals want to soak the rich, but sorry the rich will have the financial advisors to move that wealth out of the Untied States to places where thier weath is not taxed on the puntivite matter. Soaking the hand that feeds the workers insane economic policy by the liberals domga.

They reaised social security taxess 36 times since the 1950s, and im sick of the tax increase as the copout to funding essential services.

Answer 4

Ok, pretty obsessive question. It is not always percentage, but ratio. People who make more or own more can afford more taxes. To live the American lifestyle, the bills need to be paid, they are there regardless of who is paying them. If this bothers you, instead lobby to have the minimum wage rased and for national health care. Then more people could pay more in taxes because they would not be as poor. If you can live a comfortable life, count yourself fortunate that you can do more to help. A final note: In several studies, it was found that the pecentage of household income that people give to charity actually increases as incomes go down. That means that people who can barely afford to live, can find money for charities. Your taxes sort of do the same thing. I hope you feel we live in this country as a community and not as an anarchy. So you pay more taxes, big deal. You can't take it with you. Let it help the country and be proud. I am tired of the whining about punishing achievement. If that held water, intelligent people of all social classes would subscribe to it. But it doesn't. Instead, often rich people are the first to say they don't need half of what they make.
VB

Answer 5

Duh. Half of the people in the United States earn enough to pay most of the taxes. did I get that right? did you? Check out what percentage of people in the US control the wealth in this country...like 1%. Yes, 1% of the US controls most of the wealth. Why do people hate paying taxes? Taxes do pay for some of the things we take for granted. Many countries in Europe take out their share of federal taxes from your check before you get it. Yes, numbers can be twisted to prove anything. "Top 1% income rose by over 16%" and not just earned income? someone is squirreling away their money and EARN money that way, huh? So why should I pay more taxes if I am not earning more? I SURE DO WANT TO HEAR SOMEONE STAND UP FOR THOSE WHO ARE NOT IN THE TOP 1% in income.

Answer 6

You seem to be leaving out the fact that the poor need to eat, pay their bills, take care of their children with a heck of a lot less money than you seem to have. Why don't you get out of your mansion drive to the poor side of town in your fancy car look around and tell me that the poor NEED to pay more! Its just like you rich s.o.bs to complain about money. try not having any for a while like the other 80 percent of us.
I feel so sorry for you... Wait let me go i have to put in a double shift(That's 16 hrs.) on the night shift to pay my house payment and feed my family. Oh yea, there wont be any vacations for us this year daddies got to work to pay some higher taxes so the poor rich guy can afford his second house. you make me sick!

Answer 7

Your presented study question is just half truth. Explore more on the other side of the truth. Make a deep research also in the network marketing business. Be a well rounded citizen and see the beauty of understanding and balancing. You'll understand that only 5% are highly successful and 95% if not failures, they are under their own prison wall of understanding.

Answer 8

This is going to sound simplistic but: they pay 'all' the taxes, because they have 'all' the money. BTW, once you factor in other payroll taxes beyond income tax, not to mention other regressive taxes like sales taxes, the relative 'burden' on the rich doesn't look nearly so crushing.

Answer 9

You don't see me citing left-wing pundits do you? If you're going to cite the IRS, include the actual IRS link, not what Rush Limbaugh told you.

Answer 10

I am not rich and I had to pay more taxes for 2006 than ever.

Scenario: Two people, a man who makes 1000000 a year and a single mom who barely makes 30,000 a year. For ease in figuring let's assume they both pay 10% in taxes. That would be 100,000 for him and 3,000 for her. That leaves him with 900,000 to live on. With it he can buy food, shelter and clothing for his family and have plenty left over to do with as he likes. She has 27,000 left over for rent, food, clothing and utilities etc. Which one do you think is better able to afford taxes and still be able to have money for whatever they want? Even if his tax is 50% he still has enough to live quite well. If she paid 50% she is destitute. So I ask again who is best able to pay more in taxes?

Answer 11

I only read your question, not your interpretation of War and Peace


The rich should pay more % wise, not just in raw $, because they have reaped more from this country schmuck.