That would be the 50% of Americans who pay the 97% of the income tax taken by the Federal Government:
Bloomberg looked into the 2016 individual returns data in detail for some additional insights illustrated in the charts below:
- The top 1 percent paid a greater share of individual income taxes (37.3 percent) than the bottom 90 percent combined (30.5 percent).
- The top 50 percent of all taxpayers paid 97 percent of total individual income taxes.
That’s just the Feds. Now crank in all of the income taxes taken in by
State, County, and towns/cities – it’s no wonder that folks feel over taxed. If you are near the top, you could be paying more than half your income to Government (as a whole). How can that be moral – for then one is in “indentured servant” area where Government takes your time / skill simply because you are productive. We fought a war over the principle that one party could not force secondto work for the first party’s interest – yet Democrats (and RINOs either participating with them or taking the lead – like NH State Senator Russell Prescott authoring a hike in the turnpike tolls or the Repubs leading the charge to raise the per gallon gas tax).
(H/T: Tax Prof)
UPDATE: Income Tax Revenues up after Tax Reform takes effect:
Critics of the Trump tax cuts said they would blow a hole in the deficit. Yet individual income taxes climbed 6% in the just-ended fiscal year 2018, as the economy grew faster and created more jobs than expected.
The Treasury Department reported this week that individual income tax collections for FY 2018 totaled $1.7 trillion. That’s up $14 billion from fiscal 2017, and an all-time high. And that’s despite the fact that individual income tax rates got a significant cut this year as part of President Donald Trump’s tax reform plan.
Income Taxes After Trump Tax Cuts
True, the first three months of the fiscal year were before the tax cuts kicked in. But if you limit the accounting to this calendar year, individual income tax revenues are up by 5% through September.Other major sources of revenue climbed as well, as the overall economy revived. FICA tax collections rose by more than 3%. Excise taxes jumped 13%.
The only category that was down? Corporate income taxes, which dropped by 31%.
Which, as we all know (or should), corporations don’t pay taxes. Oh sure, it’s called that but it really is “a hidden consumer tax” and politicians of all stripes know this (even as they rail about corporations not paying taxes). Those of you who have owned businesses understand that claim implicitly as simply yet another cost of business. For those of you in that same camp as the Democrat politicians, let me ask this question: where else do you think corporations get the money to pay those “taxes”? Fairy dust and unicorn farts?
(H/T: IBD)
