[geeks] Taxes

[mp]

On Tue, 27 May 2008, Sandwich Maker wrote:
> " From: Shannon Hendrix <shannon at widomaker.com>
> " On May 23, 2008, at 09:44 , Sandwich Maker wrote:
> " > " From: Lionel Peterson <lionel4287 at verizon.net>
> " > "
> " > " []
> " > "
> " > " I saw an interesting report last night that analyzed actual tax
> " > " reciepts as a percentage of domestic earnings, and oddly, no matter
> " > " what the tax rates were (91% down to the current "Bush Adjusted" tax
> " > " rates that "benefit the wealthy"), the gov't took in about 19.5% in
> " > " tax revenue. When the tax rate is higher, people find ways to reduce
> " > " their tax liability, when it drops, there is less incentive to do
> " > so...
> " >
> " > yeah, but shifting that burden from folks who can't afford to pay to
> " > folks who just don't want to is not unfair.
> "
> " It's not?
> "
> " The wealthy already pay the majority of taxes.
>
> the wealthy already make most of the income.

The top 1% of wage earners (note, not neccessarily the same as 'the
wealthy') paid 33.7% of the income taxes collected (2005 numbers, first
set I could find[0]).  The top 5 percent of earners paid over 50% of the
taxes collected.

Okay, they make more, so they should pay more?

Well, the top 1% of wage earners earned 16.5% of the total income.  The
top 5% earned 31%.

<snip>

-- 
Michael Parson
mparson at bl.org

[0] http://www.taxfoundation.org/blog/show/341.html