How come the 1% that Obama whines about pays the majority of taxes?

[Black Bolshevik]

The Top 50 Percent of All Taxpayers Paid 97 Percent of All Income Taxes; the Top 5 Percent Paid 57 Percent of All Income Taxes; and the Top 1 Percent Paid 35 Percent of All Income Taxes in 2011

Table 1 breaks down the latest IRS data on number of returns, adjusted gross income, income taxes paid, and average tax rate by income group. In 2011, the bottom 50 percent of taxpayers (those with Adjusted Gross Incomes (AGI) below $34,823) accounted for 11.55 percent of total AGI. This group of taxpayers paid approximately $30 billion in taxes, or 2.89 percent of all income taxes in 2011. In contrast, the top 50 percent of taxpayers (those with AGIs above $34,823) accounted for 88.5 percent of total AGI. The top 50 percent of taxpayers paid $1.01 trillion in income taxes, or 97.1 percent of all income taxes in 2011.

In 2011, the top 10 percent of taxpayers (with AGIs above $120,000) accounted for 45.4 percent of all AGI and 68.3 percent of all income taxes paid. Taxpayers in the top 5 percent accounted for 33.9 percent of all AGI and 56.5 percent of all income taxes paid. The top 1 percent of all taxpayers accounted for 18.7 percent of all AGI and 35.1 percent of all income taxes paid.

http://taxfoundation.org/article/summary...e-tax-data

[Biff]

Because they make the majority of the income, and our system of taxes is based primarily on income.

Isn't that kind of a "duh" question? Or were you expecting that the people who make less income would pay more tax?

The fact that the super rich pay most income tax is simply another indication of the extreme disparity in wealth and income between rich and poor.

[Tom Joad]

The top one percent make over 40 percent of all income sooooooo

[Pluto C. Rat]

After I steal all your assets and report them as my own, I'll then pay the fees associated with them. But the taxes I then pay will be given right back to me from the government in sweetheart supply contracts. BWAHAHAHAHA... And I can STILL claim I pay most of the taxes -- even as I am fully aware that only US working class tax contributions actually stick.

"The members of the tiny capitalist class at the top of the hierarchy have an influence on economy and society far beyond their numbers. They make investment decisions that open or close employment opportunities for millions of others. They contribute money to political parties, and they often own MEDIA enterprises that allow them influence over the thinking of other classes... The capitalist class strives to perpetuate itself: Assets, lifestyles, values and social networks... are all passed from one generation to the next." -Dennis Gilbert, The American Class Structure, 1998

>>

As US richclass have appropriated all resources and assets in the nation, of course US richclass pays more in taxes (even as the taxes they pay are returned to them through sweetheart government contracts for “services” to government by their appropriated industries). As for me -- with nothing left, what can I be taxed for -- my @ss?

Who pays more in taxes in the US: the rich or the working class/poor? In dollars? The rich (see above). But as a percentage of their income? A working class/poor person by far.

As for welfare beneficiaries, welfare benefits are not taxable income, for obvious reasons. But welfare recipients, and poor people in general, most certainly pay much higher percentages of their income than the rich in sales tax and other taxes. Furthermore, many, if not most welfare recipients also work, and that income is taxed as well.

[Jacara]

As a % of their income they pay the lowest.

[Adam L]

It's an easy scapegoat. Blame the problems on 1% of the population regardless if it true. Get approval from the people who are looking for someone to blame (greater than 1%)

[Gaijin]

How much in taxes do you suppose these folks pay and do you think those taxes are paid in the U.S.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/01/20/38...-have.html

Tax free havens in over seas accounts and you think they pay taxes before putting their money in those havens...lol.

Majority of taxes are paid by upper middle class,the rest are paid by working people.

[RIGHT IS RIGHT]

Outstanding Question !!

The fact is that the top 10 % of wage earners already pay over 70 % of all income tax revenue

49 % of all Americans currently pay no income taxes at all on their unearned income

Welfare Recipients contribute the least to Society and collect the most benefits from Society

[bmoney]

Does this take into account joint income tax? You know the married type.

[zhu]

They don't, of course. They do most of the tax avoiding. When I was a minimum wage worker in the US, 20% of my pay went to federal taxes. Then there were local and state taxes, etc. Willard the Rat can hire tax avoidance specialists; I didn't. (I wonder if he paid his tithe to the Mormon Church, as he avoided his Fed. taxes!)

Now, I live and prosper in a developing country, with lower taxes all around. Emigrate! If you have a skill but no family money, no family guanxi!