RSSComparison of Share of Income to Share of Income Taxes Paid in 2007
This chart illustrates the progressive structure of the federal income tax system as seen in the average tax rates (center column) computed from tax returns filed in 2007. For example, the top left block indicates that the top 1% of tax returns reported $2.0 trillion in adjusted gross income, which was 22.8% of the total adjusted gross income of $8.8 trillion for the year. The top right block indicates that $451 billion in income taxes was collected from that group, which amounted to 40.4% of the total $1.1 trillion of income taxes for the year.
The progressivity of the income tax system is further demonstrated by the fact that the top 1% paid more income taxes ($451 billion) than the bottom 95% ($438 billion).
15 Responses to “Comparison of Share of Income to Share of Income Taxes Paid in 2007”
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October 23rd, 2009 at 6:07 pm
… demonstrates how damaging the Bush tax cuts were. They dropped revenue substantially. If those are reinstated, plus the Iraq war ended then the budget is nearly balanced for the long term.
October 28th, 2009 at 8:03 am
I would like to see a similar chart which includes the Social Security and Medicare taxes. The true tax burden on a working family includes these taxes. In addition, since the employer pays an equal amount of those taxes (thereby redirecting value generated by that labor to the government), I would like to see a chart which includes The employer portion of the Social Security tax and medicare tax.
Thanks
October 28th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
RE: Comment #11 below–
Yes, tax revenues did decrease from 2001 to 2004 as a result of the ‘01 asnd ‘03 tax cuts. But notice the sharp increase in tax collections after 2003. See this chart: http://perotcharts.com/category/budget-deficit-charts/page/2/
Editor
November 5th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
I would love to see where the tax dollars get spent geographically. I will bet that states like Texas get an inproportionate share of Federal tax money doled out to them compared to states large tax paying states like Connecticut, California and New Jersey. Does anyone know of a report or chart that follows this?
November 7th, 2009 at 9:36 am
I think the suggestion that America as it is today should just not have an income tax is absurd. For the first 126 years of America’s existence, we didn’t have an interstate system, or much of an education system, or a space program, or a gigantic world-dominating standing army with nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and stuff like that in it.
Personally, I like having those things. You may as well say “America did just fine without automobiles and telephones for the first 126 years of its history.” … times change.
As to who benefits from taxes… I say the wealthy certainly benefit more than anyone else, and it is fair to ask them to pay more. The reason is: most of the spending is military. Having a big military means that people can’t just come over and take your stuff away at gunpoint. The wealthy have most of the stuff, thus derive most of the benefit from this. I don’t think they’re going to starve if they are asked to chip in a little more to cover it.