Who's Not Paying Their Fair Share?...

...the 47% of taxpayers that are paying NO federal income taxes or the 53% that are paying federal income taxes?

That's right. About 47% will pay no federal income taxes at all for 2009 (see chart above, data here).

Either their incomes were too low, or they qualified for enough credits, deductions and exemptions to eliminate their liability. That's according to projections by the Tax Policy Center.

In recent years, credits for low- and middle-income families have grown so much that a family of four making as much as $50,000 will owe NO federal income tax for 2009, as long as there are two children younger than 17.

Nearly half of the country is completely exempted from paying for programs that benefit everyone, including national defense, public safety, infrastructure and education. It is a system in which the top 10% of earners -- households making an average of $366,400 in 2006 -- paid about 73% of the income taxes collected by the federal government.

The bottom 40%, on average, make a profit from the federal income tax, meaning they get more money in tax credits than they would otherwise owe in taxes. For those people, the government sends them a payment.

"We have 50% of people who are getting something for nothing," said Curtis Dubay, senior tax policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation.