Our Tax System Already Significantly Burdens the Rich
It's a little recognized fact.
From Greg Mankiw's Blog
The Progressivity of the Tax System
The CBO has released a new report on effective tax rates (total taxes divided by total income). Compared with previous reports, it includes more information about thin slices at the top of the income distribution. Here are the total effective federal tax rates for 2005, the most recent year available:
Lowest quintile: 4.3 percent
Second quintile: 9.9 percent
Middle quintile: 14.2 percent
Fourth quintile: 17.4 percent
Percentiles 81-90: 20.3 percent
Percentiles 91-95: 22.4 percent
Percentiles 96-99: 25.7 percent
Percentiles 99.0-99.5: 29.7 percent
Percentiles 99.5-99.9: 31.2 percent
Percentiles 99.9-99.99: 32.1 percent
Top 0.01 Percentile: 31.5 percentN.B.: These figures include all federal taxes, not just income taxes.
Here are the CBO report's notes on income taxes:
High-income households have a disproportionate share of comprehensive income and pay a disproportionate share of federal taxes. The half-percent of the population with the highest income received 14.7 percent of total household income before taxes and paid 22.6 percent of total federal taxes in 2005 (see Tables 2 and 3). People at the top 0.01 percent of the income scale received 4.2 percent of total income and paid 6.5 percent of total federal taxes in 2005. The half-percent of the population with the highest income paid 31.5 percent of federal individual income taxes, while the top 0.01 percent paid 8.0 percent of individual income taxes in 2005.
