Posted on 10/27/2017 1:26:51 PM PDT by SoFloFreeper
.....OMB later cited internal data to the Washington Examiner that said the top 20 percent of people to pay income taxes account for 94.8 percent of those taxes in 2016.
That appears to be a jump from just a few years ago. In 2015, the Wall Street Journal reported that the top 20 percent of income earners paid 84 percent of income taxes.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
Hard to cut much if you aren’t paying much.
More middle class people have fallen out of the workforce over the past 8 years. Hard to pay taxes when you don’t make any money.
I am against any tax change that raises the percentage of US Citizens who do NOT pay any income taxes. Everyone should have a skin in the game. 2% to $25,000. 4% $25,000 to $50,000. People need to have an interest in how the money is spent.
With the deductions, credits, exemptions etc, it is easy to see how these numbers come about. Middle class income has been relatively flat for many years.
My point is, when one is not paying any tax, it is hard to get them excited to provide any tax relief for anyone else.
I’ve pointed out in my early years, almost everyone who earned more than about 1500 PAID income tax. The average salary then was in the low double digits.
What’s they’re definition of middle class?
Seems like 30 years ago it meant nice house in nice area, new car every 5-7 years, ability to give your children a shot at a better life aka college degree, fairly close to someplace where there’s plenty of work that pays well enough to do all that. That’s like 120k/yr these days isn’t it? So they’re paying single digits?
We need to stop looking at “top xx% of earners” and start thinking in terms of taxes on labor. Every earner should have skin the game, as another poster pointed out, even if its only 1%, but the bulk of the tax burden should fall on people who can afford to write a check to buy a new A/C unit or a 5 series Beamer without worrying about anything vs those who don’t know how they will pay the power bill this month.
That’s why we need consumption taxes and not taxes on labor or capital. Like the Fair Tax.
2% to $25,000. 4% $25,000 to $50,000
Why not a flat tax for everyone? What is wrong with a person making 10,000 paying 1,000 and someone making a million paying 100,000? I cannot, no matter how much brain washing is done, comprehend why someone making more should pay a higher percentage. I would go as far as to say there should be a maximum payment, too.
“In one year, the share of the income taxes of the top 20% increased incredibly — from 84% to 95%. “
In a perverse way, based on the taxes they pay, the country actually belongs to the rich. So on the one hand, we complain that through their excessive wealth, they buy our government to be what they want it to be. But they, and the corporations they control, do pay for nearly everything the government needs ( or wants ) money to pay for.
You’ve got my vote.
Excellent point.
The folks in the top 5 to 20 percent would be upper middle class and likely pay most of taxes.
There’s something called “the national income”- it’s the total of all income earned in the country.
The top percentiles earn a big enough portion of the national income that they are liable for the largest portion of taxes. It’s not just a result of the tax rate. It’s who earns.
If the middle class grows again the percentage paid by the top percentiles could decline as a percentage while staying the same in real numbers.
“Hard to cut much if you aren’t paying much.”
Yeh, it gets worse; the bottom 30% +\ - pays negative income taxes. It’s on a sliding scale, the very bottom could get back as much as a net $8,000 ~ $10,000 depending on number of dependents and amount of earned income credit.
Unfair to make 80% of the population shoulder 5.2% of the tax burden!
Get Bernie Sanders on the phone?
Curse the billionaires and millionaires who aren’t picking up their fair share!
Call Fauxcahontas!
” the bottom 30% +\ - pays negative income taxes. It’s on a sliding scale, the very bottom could get back as much as a net $8,000 ~ $10,000 depending on number of dependents and amount of earned income credit.”
In an earlier generation, referred to as “welfare”, not a “tax refund”.
The size of the middle class has been greatly diminished in the past 8 years.
Did anyone see what income level it takes today to be in the top 20%?
The left loves to make people think that the "rich" get a bigger refund from the government because the government likes them better. Correct terminology would help clarify.
Yeah, about 13-14 years ago when I was in the field in retail making about $28k/yr, a friend of mine making about $2k/yr less than I was got married in December of that year to a woman with 2 kids already and no income. They got the $1500 back he’d paid in fed taxes plus another like $7-8k with EITC and Child tax credits. Couldn’t believe it. At least he was smart and used it to pay all cash for a new Kia with 100k warranty rather than blow it on vacations or the like.
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