Top 20% US earners pay 84% of income tax.

[psyah]

Re: Top 20% US earners pay 84% of income tax.

Also according to OP tables …

260 million people pay 16.1% of total tax … That is only 202.9 billion dollars. When dividing this amount by 260 million people the figures are suggesting that on average 260 million Americans only give 780 dollars per year in tax.

Conclusion those tables are doctored with fake data.

[kakaballi]

Re: Top 20% US earners pay 84% of income tax.

@psyah

…Conclusion those tables are doctored with fake data.

I think the confusion is ‘people’ v/s ‘taxpayers’. There is no way there are 65x5 = 325 million taxpayers in USA.

I suspect that the ‘people’ includes dependents and family members of the taxpayers.

[Southie]

Re: Top 20% US earners pay 84% of income tax.

The other tax on the poor

They don’t get to decide where the coal power plant is located. Or a chemical plant. Or the airport.

While fossil fuel fan boys who are in top 0.1 to 0.01 pct get away with not in my backyard mentality. And the left is not without blame. The Kennedys didn’t want off shore wind turbines next to their property. Spoil their view they said.

So how much is this tax? 10000.

Which brings the grand total tax paid by Poor to 32500. Out of taxable income of 15000. And total income of 25000.

In other words, you can stick to some numbers and say the liberals have gone too far. Or you can put yourself in the shoes of the bottom 1 pct.

[Southie]

Re: Top 20% US earners pay 84% of income tax.

50 pct of top 0.01 pct income from gains in investments. Wonder the killing they make from corporations incorporated abroad oo avoid paying taxes at home. And every other decade congress passes something along with gas that allows the corporation to repatriate cash from abroad tax free. (The repatriation may be for companies that are also incorporated in us with businesses abroad).

So these businesses use US infrastructure but don’t want to pay taxes. I guess moderates willn argue some of it trickles down to the guy at the bottom. How About THEm Moderates

[psyah]

Re: Top 20% US earners pay 84% of income tax.

@kakaballi

I think the confusion is ‘people’ v/s ‘taxpayers’. There is no way there are 65x5 = 325 million taxpayers in USA.

I suspect that the ‘people’ includes dependents and family members of the taxpayers.

Still the first image in post #1](http://www.paklinks.com/gs/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=1) says that the figures are for 65 million per quintile … which infers there are 325 M taxpayers … And you rightly say that is too high … So that is another fake detail in the table.

[Southie]

Re: Top 20% US earners pay 84% of income tax.

Now we come to the elephant in the room.

Carbon footprint. The top 0.01 pct probably has several of following

Outdoor heat pool - yes even the supposedly liberal.Gore had it. Till he was shamed out of it.
Private jets
Yachts
Vast house with high heating cooling needs
Lot of land - needing grass maintenance and water waste
Gas guzzling vehicles
List goes on.

And the bottom 00.01 pct? They breathe the.noxious atmosphere - made as such by folks with huge carbon footprint.

So what price do we tack on to top .01 pct. And credit bottom .01 pct

Yes liberals have gone too fr. We need to move to center. Which is another word for brain dead.

[OYMWA]

Re: Top 20% US earners pay 84% of income tax.

Here is the entire article. Hopefully this will shed some light on your questions @psyah. Hadn’t realized that many people could not ready wsj articles without a subscription.

Who pays what in income taxes? With April 15 just around the corner, filers may be curious about where they fit into the system as a whole.The individual income tax remains the most important levy in the U.S., providing nearly half of federal revenue.

This is unusual: On average, developed nations get only one-third of their revenue from income taxes. Typically they also impose national consumption taxes, such as a value-added tax, that raise as much revenue as their income tax.

The pressure on the U.S. income tax has prompted lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to seriously consider a national consumption tax. But liberals worry that such a levy could unduly burden the poor, while conservatives fear it would be too easy to dial up the rate and collect more revenue.As a result, experts say, there is little chance of tax overhaul this year.

Meanwhile, these two tables offer a snapshot of who is paying what for the 2014 tax year.The first gives shares of income and federal income taxes for 2014 for some 325 million Americans, dividing the population into five income quintiles of about 65 million people each.

http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/BF-AJ529A_11txr_16U_20150409185406.jpg

ENLARGE

The second table provides further information about the top 20%, who pay more than 80% of income taxes.

http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/BF-AJ530B_11tax_9U_20150409185422.jpg

ENLARGE

The data come from estimates by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, a Washington-based research group, as Internal Revenue Service data for 2014 won’t be available for at least two years. Unlike IRS data, it includes information about nonfilers—both people who didn’t need to file and people who should have filed but didn’t. The total also includes Americans living overseas and others, which is why it is greater than the U.S. Census estimate of 319 million.

Another important difference: The income cited in the tables includes untaxed amounts for employer-provided health coverage, tax-exempt interest and retirement-plan contributions and growth, among other things. This can be significant.

On average, such benefits double the income of people in the bottom quintile and add more than 25% to the income of people in the top quintile, says Roberton Williams, an income-tax specialist at the Tax Policy Center. That means a taxpayer whose stated pay is $130,000 might be reaping another $35,000 annually in untaxed income.

“Most people focus on the income they see in their paychecks or portfolios and forget about untaxed benefits they receive,” Mr. Williams says.The tables show just how progressive the income tax is. The three million people in the top 1% of earners pay nearly half the income tax.Why is the share of income taxes negative for 40% of Americans?

In recent decades Congress has chosen to funnel important benefits for lower-income earners through the income tax rather than other channels. Some of these benefits, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit and the American Opportunity Credit for education, make cash payments to people who don’t owe income tax.People receiving such payments do pay other federal taxes, of course, such as those for Social Security and Medicare. If these taxes are included, the share of federal taxes paid by the lowest two quintiles turns positive.

The share of tax paid by the top 20% of Americans also changes when such social-insurance levies are included: It drops from more than 80% of income taxes to about 67% of all federal taxes.

—Email: [EMAIL=“[email protected]”][email protected]

[Southie]

Re: Top 20% US earners pay 84% of income tax.

And who can forget the wall street bailout. AUG deservedly went down. (Share price) since it had insured garbage. But GS JMP MS Deutsche Bank UBS got 100 cents on the dollar. Even though Geithner could have negotiated way lower.

The ceos of GS JPM are now back to rake in millions. Socialism for the rich. Did OP assign these costs to the rich? Does the sun rise from the west?

[Southie]

Re: Top 20% US earners pay 84% of income tax.

The ratio of salary of ceos to median pay is at all time high. And the Right still complains. Ably assisted by the middle.

Kudos to seattle.ceo who docked his pay to 70K so the employees salary could be increases. How about that leftie

[psyah]

Re: Top 20% US earners pay 84% of income tax.

Peace OYMWA

Do you seriously believe that the wsj is presenting the truth? … They have a vested interest in making it seem that the richest are taking the lion share of the taxes … I simply cannot believe that to be the case. Can we get info from an independent source?

[Southie]

Re: Top 20% US earners pay 84% of income tax.

How about hitting people with a consumption tax once the consume more than the average comsumption, adjusting for number of family members. And this consumption tax should have a power law relationship with income.

For a billionaire, every kWh excess each month consumption should cost the following

1st 10 - 200 $
Next 10 - 400$
Next 10 800$
Next 10 4000 $

So 5400 dollars per month.

Do same for gasoline, Nat gas to heat homes..say another 5400

So 11000 pr.monyh
132000 per year.
No - let us do times 4. So 520000$/yr.

Still chump change.

Jet fuel for jets..200000. $/y
Yacht electricity. And fuel. 200000.

1 million per yer. So 0.1.pct tax.

[Southie]

Re: Top 20% US earners pay 84% of income tax.

And since the top 0.01 pct controls whether we go to war let them foot the entire expense. What is it about 3 trillion?

Anyone counted how kuch these folks are being undertaxed?

[Southie]

Re: Top 20% US earners pay 84% of income tax.

Free exchange: Forget the 1% | The Economist

The top 0.01 pct as I had mentioned very early on owns 11 pct of total assets.

By the way wrt estate tax when u pass along shares of stocks to ur heirs , the cost basis increases to price during transfer. So if cost basis was 10 dollars per share when originally purchased.say 25 yrs ago, and current price is 80 dollars, the heirs cost basis jumps to 80. No taxes ever got paid for the jump from 20 to 80. Assuming 1 million dollars invested 25 yrs ago. No tax paid on 3 million dollars of profit.

Does OP mention this? Are liberals too extreme? Does the sun rise in the west?

[Southie]

Re: Top 20% US earners pay 84% of income tax.

The top 0.1 pct holds 22 pct of assets. This is 160000 families.

So 16000 families (top 0.01 pct) own as much as the next 144000 families.

The remaining 99.99 owns 89 pct. And bottom 99.9 pct owns 78 pct.

[Southie]

Re: Top 20% US earners pay 84% of income tax.

GOP passes massive tax break for millionaires, billionaires | MSNBC

And we still think it is the Democrats who have gone too far to the left on this issue? 269 billion dollars giveaway to top 0.2 pct. Have we gone nuts? Have the “centrists” really become so dumbed down by the lamestream media?

Does the sun rise in the west?