JoeReal

This was published by Millet, admin of the citrus forum and would like to share it here to stir the banana pot:
Original link: Citrus Growers Forum :: View topic - Wealthiest Americans Pay 97.1% of All Income Taxes

The Tax Foundation - Summary of Latest Federal Individual Income Tax Data
SOI Tax Stats - Individual Statistical Tables by Tax Rate and Income Percentile

According to the above fiscal tax report, the top 1 percent of American wage earners paid about 40 percent of all income taxes collected by the US Government (IRS), paying a total of $408,369,000,000 at a tax rate of 34 percent. The top 5 percent of wage earners in the United States paid 60.14 percent of all Income taxes collected by the government, at an average tax rate of 20.68 percent for a total of $615,680,000,000 as a group. The entire top 50 percent of all American wage earners paid 97.01 percent of all income taxes collected by the government, paying a total of $993,176,000,000.

Now get this: The entire bottom 50 percent of American wage earners, only paid 2.99 percent of all income taxes (less than 3 percent) at an average rate of 3.02 percent for a total $30,563,000,000. Counting the cost of running the IRS for an entire year, the U.S. Government would actually accumulate more income, if they did not even bother collecting income taxes from the bottom 50 percent of American wage earners.

On the receiving end, households in the lower quintile of income received roughly $8.21 in federal, state and local government spending (aid of some type) for every dollar of taxes they paid, while households in the middle quintile received $1.30, and households in the top quintile received only $0.41.

Michael_Andrew

Thanks Joe "Buzz Kill" Real. I was just beginning to feel good about myself. Now I know I'm just a welfare case.

JoeReal

Don't worry, I'm bordering on the poverty line.

JoeReal

I think we need to verify IRS report... after all, the rich folks have the means to pay for an army of accountants.

I really favor that there should be only sales tax to pay, no income and state taxes, just sales tax to be fair to everybody. Imagine the time savings of having to fill out the convoluted tax returns. I for one is spending 2 weeks to fill out all the tax forms, validate and counter-check them.

This year, I'll be on welfare, after spending on a couple new companies and my tax form will ever be more complicated than the last.