The issue of who pays how much of the individual income tax burden was often raised by the candidates during the campaign. Sen. McCain promised to not raise taxes, while now-President-elect Obama pledged to give a tax cut to 95 percent of taxpayers. The focus of their strongest disagreement was on the taxation of high-income individuals. Their conflicting views often resulted in confusion for the electorate.
So who does pay what? According to Internal Revenue Service data for 2006 individual income tax returns, taxpayers with income over $30,000 pay 97.5 percent of all of the U.S. individual income tax collected, while those with lower incomes owe little or no tax at all, or even receive refundable tax benefits. Taxpayers who earned more than $200,000 were the focus of campaign attention. In 2006, this group — about 3 percent of the nation’s tax filers — paid 53 percent of income taxes. This same group earned over 30 percent of reported adjusted gross income from all sources, including about 20 percent of the nation’s paid wages. According to the IRS, taxpayers earning $500,000 or more represented less than 1 percent of all tax filers, but they accounted for 20 percent of all adjusted gross income and 36 percent of income taxes paid during 2006." And the last blurbs are from 2006 --- under the current regime. Those 3% making USD $200k or more paid 53% of income taxes and that 1% of all tax filers (over USD $500k) paid for 36% of income taxes paid. And Obama's gonna jack that rate even higher. Welcome to hell. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
