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Tax Burden: Who Pays What?

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The info below provides a good summary from the Kiplinger Tax Letter on who pays taxes in the US and to what extent.

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(From Kiplinger Tax Letter)

Do the rich pay taxes?  New IRS statistics show the burden on taxpayers.

The top 1% of all filers paid 37.4% of all federal income taxes in 2010, the most recent year IRS has analyzed.  That's up from 36.3% the previous year. They reported 18.9% of total adjusted gross income, also higher than the year before.  However, the average tax rate paid by the top 1% fell slightly to 23.4% of their AGI.  Filers needed to have AGI of at least $369,691 to qualify for the top 1% of earners.

The highest 5% paid 59.1% of total income tax and accounted for 33.8% of all adjusted gross income.  They each had AGI of at least $161,579.  The top 10% of filers, those with AGIs of $116,623 or more, bore 70.6% of the total tax burden while bringing in slightly more than 45% of the total adjusted gross income.

The bottom 50% of filers paid 2.36% of the total federal income tax take, mainly because of the refundable tax credits.   Their average tax rate was 2.4% of their AGI.

Two things to note about the data: The average tax rates would be higher if the IRS expressed them as a percentage of taxable income instead of AGI.  Also, the Service excluded returns filed by dependents from the calculations this year.

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Best Regards,

Kevin Kroskey, CFP, MBA
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