Now these are the "super rich." Not the average rich. The super ones. They make so much money and pay no taxes. Do they not drive the same roads? Do they not cross the same bridges? Do they not ponder the same mysteries of life? It makes you wonder if everything is set up fair and square. If I'm reading this right, the super rich are paying 17% tax now, and they were paying 26% about 20 years ago. How did that happen? Why are they paying less? I could see them paying the SAME, but why LESS? What's going on? Marvin Gaye sang that song. Peoples.
Well I still have not filed so good luck to all of you as the slide continues... Weeeehah!
As millions of procrastinators scramble to meet Monday's tax filing deadline, ponder this: The super rich pay a lot less taxes than they did a couple of decades ago, and nearly half of U.S. households pay no income taxes at all.
The Internal Revenue Service tracks the tax returns with the 400 highest adjusted gross incomes each year. The average income on those returns in 2007, the latest year for IRS data, was nearly $345 million. Their average federal income tax rate was 17 percent, down from 26 percent in 1992.
Over the same period, the average federal income tax rate for all taxpayers declined to 9.3 percent from 9.9 percent.
The top income tax rate is 35 percent, so how can people who make so much pay so little in taxes? The nation's tax laws are packed with breaks for people at every income level. There are breaks for having children, paying a mortgage, going to college, and even for paying other taxes. Plus, the top rate on capital gains is only 15 percent.
There are so many breaks that 45 percent of U.S. households will pay no federal income tax for 2010, according to estimates by the Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank.
[Associated Press]
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