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).
22 Responses to “Comparison of Share of Income to Share of Income Taxes Paid in 2007”
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July 4th, 2010 at 10:40 pm
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July 27th, 2010 at 4:36 pm
The chart omits the change in payroll taxes. This is significant because between Reagan and Bush 41, the top marginal tax rates — the rates on the wealthy — were halved, but payroll taxes — the rates on the lower incomes — quadrupled.
The upshot was flat real incomes for the lower 90%, and a 497% increase for the top 0.01%… of real incomes. Don’t believe me? Here’s the study: http://select.nytimes.com/2006/02/27/opinion/27krugman.html
Finally, the lie that tax reductions increases collections ought to be transparent since none of the Republicans saying this managed to balance a budget, but more offensive still is the contention that incomes rose most dramatically during the Reagan years because of such tax reductions. Take a look at the graph here to see how utterly false such a claim is: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/22/down-the-memory-hole/