Wondering who shoulders most of the burden for paying federal income taxes? The most recent data available from the Internal Revenue Service (for tax year 2003) indicates the following:
|
Income |
Share of Total AGI |
Share of Income Taxes |
Average Tax Rate |
|
Top 1% |
Over $295,495 |
16.8% |
34.3% |
24.3% |
|
Top 5% |
Over $130,080 |
31.2% |
54.4% |
20.7% |
|
Top 10% |
Over $94,891 |
42.4% |
65.8% |
18.5% |
|
Top 25% |
Over $57,048 |
64.9% |
83/9% |
15.4% |
|
Top 50% |
Over $29,018 |
86% |
96.5% |
13.4% |
|
Bottom 50% |
Under $29,018 |
14% |
3.5% |
3% |
|
While the perception is that high-income taxpayers are paying less tax, the reality is that upper-income taxpayers are paying a much higher portion of total federal income taxes. For instance, the top 1% of all tax filers paid 34.3% of all federal income taxes in 2003, compared to 19.1% in 1980