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Oops. I made a mistake. John Forbes Kerry files taxes separately from his wife Theresa Heinz, who in 2003/04 paid very little in taxes, although she didn't dodge all federal taxes. Teresa's Taxes explains her situation as best as any I can find. Please note the following key sentences (emphasis mine):

...Mrs. Kerry paid only a token Social Security tax. That's because the payroll tax is assessed on wages, and Mrs. Kerry declared very little wage income. She gets most of her income from dividends and interest...[The] vast majority of Americans...must (with their employer) cough up the 15.3% payroll levy.
...Mrs. Kerry...avoided taxation by investing in tax-exempt [generally municipal] bonds of various kinds. ...
...[Most wealthy Americans] haven't had time--or been lucky enough to marry rich--to build up the assets to be able to live off tax-free investments the way Mrs. Kerry can. The super-rich, as opposed to the merely successful, are the ones who are really able to avoid taxes....
...Mrs. Kerry paid an average tax rate of 12.4% on her declared income of $5.07 million. In 2002, even after the first round of Bush tax cuts, the average rate paid by all taxpayers was still higher than that at 13.03%.
As for the folks in her wealthy neighborhood, in 2002 the top 1% of taxpayers paid an average rate (also known as the effective tax rate) of 27.25%....
But back to Mrs. Kerry: Some readers wondered how she could be worth nearly $1 billion (as the Los Angeles Times has estimated) and earn only $5.07 million in 2003. Good question, that. It's impossible to tell given that Mrs. Kerry has disclosed only two pages of her 1040 form and declines to explain how her assets are deployed. But we agree with those readers who suggest that much of her wealth must be tied up in trusts and estates that don't require a declaration of income. Like many of the super-rich, Mrs. Kerry can afford to hire lawyers and accountants to create these shelters for her and her heirs.

That last bit alludes to my point: The super-wealthy can and do manipulate the super-complex tax code through lobbyists and tax attorneys to create special shelters to avoid taxation. I propose dramatically simplifying the tax code to eliminate these shelters. As a bad American, I do not comprehend the tax code--and I can't afford enough tax attorneys to find my way into paying such a minuscule portion of my income to the federal government.