More Tax Data

As a followup to yesterday's post I am including more information about the income taxes paid by Americans. This data is all available at the link in yesterday's post and it's free.

As pointed out yesterday, the contribution of Americans to the revenue gleaned from the income tax is;

24.8% from Americans making less than $100K
38.1% from Americans making $100K to just under $500K
36.9% from Americans making $500K and more

Now, using TAXABLE Income as our baseline for everything that follows;

If your income is under $100K you pay less than 14% of that income as income tax, the range is 9.3 - 13.6%

If your income is $100K or more you pay at least 17% of that income as income tax, the range is 17.4 - 27.2%

ON AVERAGE (Your Mileage May Vary (YMMV)):

If your income was under $100K your tax bill was under $9K

If your income was $100K to under $200K your tax bill was just over $17K

If your income was $200K to under $500K your tax bill was just over $56K

If your income was $500K to under $1M your tax bill was over $158K

If your income was $1M or more your tax bill ranged from just over $291K (income of $1 - 1.5M) to just over $6M (income of $10M or more)

AN EDITORIAL COMMENT - contrary to what you may think, the filthy rich do indeed pay taxes. The total returns filed in 2007 with an Adjusted Gross Income of $1M or more is 392,221. The total returns with TAXABLE income of $1M or more is 391,259. The difference of 962 would include those individuals whose TAXABLE income fell below the $1M threshold. It is impossible to tell if any of the millionaires did not pay taxes. If any did not pay taxes, the number is incredibly small. Certainly less than 1,000 out of 142.9M filed returns (less than .001%)

I am not sure what constitutes the middle class anymore, but I suspect most folks would claim that an income of $100K or more is not in that category. If anyone knows for sure, let me know. In any case, the income tax burden is not on the poor. That is what happens with a progressive tax structure.

Remember; check those deductions out of your pay very carefully before grousing about Uncle's fingers. Uncle only pulls income tax, your share of Social Security, and the Medicare tax. Anything else? Not Uncle's doing.