Monday, February 14, 2011

Are We Taxed Too Little?

The Tax Foundation breaks down the National Adjusted Gross Income (NAGI), and total federal income tax (TFIT) paid by income brackets:

  • Top 1% : 20% NAGI , 38% TFIT
  • 5%-1% : 15% NAGI, 21% TFIT
  • 10%-5%: 11% NAGI, 11% TFIT
  • 25%-10%: 21% NAGI, 16% TFIT
  • 50%-25%: 20% NAGI, 11% TFIT
  • Lower 50%: 13% NAGI, 3% TFIT
Indeed, the lower 45% of income earners pay no federal income tax, which is fine by us, we guess, ignoring the fact that this taxpayer group is getting some of this revenue back in forms of subsidies. Where the Left gets verklempt is their "feeling" that the upper 1%, or 5%, or 10% of taxpayers are not paying their "fair share". Hmmm: the top 1% are being taxed at a rate nearly thirteen times that of the lower 50%. We would kindly ask the redistributionists to interpret the entrails of the tax code and tell us what ratio of tax liability should be to bring the universe into order.

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