All Obama and the Dems can say is that certain folks don’t pay their fair share in taxes. I know that there are some socialist / Progressives that would be fine with taking it all after a certain point (“you should not be able to make more than $5 million per year!”) and a high percentage on everything before that. Equality, they say. But the way they talk about it, the rich pay next to nothing; hardly:
| % income tax paid | |
| Adjusted gross income | as a share of AGI |
| $1 to under $10,000 | -13.6 |
| $10,000 to under $20,000 | -11.5 |
| $20,000 to under $30,000 | -3.7 |
| $30,000 to under $50,000 | 3.1 |
| $50,000 to under $100,000 | 7.5 |
| $100,000 to under $200,000 | 12 |
| $200,000 to under $500,000 | 19.6 |
| $500,000 to under $1,000,000 | 24 |
| $1,000,000 to under $1,500,00 | 24.9 |
| $1,500,000 to under $2,000,000 | 25.1 |
| $2,000,000 to under $5,000,000 | 24.9 |
| $5,000,000 to under $10,000,000 | 24.2 |
| $10,000,000 or more | 20.7 |
As the chart shows, the only folks paying nothing are the poor – and with the EITC, the govt actually pays them. I bet you’re noticing “Skip, look at the top two brackets – they are paying LESS – you LIE!”. Er, no – and this is where the Dems pull the magic trick of demogoguing over the low-information voter:
And that would be due to the difference in earned income (commonly referred to as wage/salary income) and capital gains / dividend income (income derived from invested money on which taxes have ALREADY been paid – and now the Govt wants a SECOND cut at what it didn’t earn):
| % of gross income from | |
| Adjusted gross income | capital gains ÷nds |
| $1 to under $10,000 | 0.4 |
| $10,000 to under $20,000 | 0.6 |
| $20,000 to under $30,000 | 0.7 |
| $30,000 to under $50,000 | 0.8 |
| $50,000 to under $100,000 | 1.4 |
| $100,000 to under $200,000 | 2.2 |
| $200,000 to under $500,000 | 5.6 |
| $500,000 to under $1,000,000 | 10 |
| $1,000,000 to under $1,500,00 | 14.6 |
| $1,500,000 to under $2,000,000 | 16.6 |
| $2,000,000 to under $5,000,000 | 21.7 |
| $5,000,000 to under $10,000,000 | 28.8 |
| $10,000,000 or more | 48.5 |
Look at the last two catagories here and in the previous table – it shows that most of the very rich do not work for a wages – their income comes from making successful investments for the longer term.
