Surprise: The Top 20% of U.S. Income Earners Pay 93% of The Taxes...

Contrary to conventional wisdom, the rich do a lot for the rest of us, not always because they intend to.

In America, high-income households:

• Pay most of the income taxes

• Contribute heavily to charity

• Save their money and invest in companies

• Invent, improve or make cheaper goods and services we love

• Start companies and create jobs

• Pay the high cost of new products


Read More @ Investor's Business Daily:
http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials-brain-trust/071114-708479-thomas-pikettys-idea-to-tax-the-rich-would-make-us-all-poorer.htm#ixzz37OpfCsmi

What Does It Mean to Be "Rich" in America?

The vast majority of investors, 84%, associate wealth with greater security, but older investors are more likely to view security has a hallmark of being rich.

More than 87% percent of investors ages 61 and over associate wealth with security, compared to 72% of investors 40 and under.

Younger investors are more apt to associate “More Happiness,” “More Fun” and “Less Work” with being wealthy, while older investors are more likely to feel the wealthy have more responsibility and a more complicated life.

Americans tend to define “Rich” primarily by wealth level, as opposed to lifestyle or income, while less affluent investors, those with less than $100,000 in investable assets, are more apt than higher net worth individuals to define the wealthy by income and lifestyle.

Why Lowering Tax Rates Generates MORE Tax Revenue From The Rich...

The Richest 10% of Americans: What They Make & What They're Worth...

What The Richest 10% of Americans Make... 

 The average income of the richest 10% of Americans fell         -5.3% from 2007 to 2010, dropping from $216,800 to $205,300. 

What The Richest 10% of Americans Are Worth...

The average net worth of the richest 10% of Americans increased +1.9% from 2007 to 2010, rising from $1.172 million to $1.194 million. 

Source: Federal Reserve

Most Americans Say $150,000 Annual Income Makes You Rich: Gallup

It's not only 1 percenters that Americans consider rich.

More than half of those recently polled by Gallup said an income of no more than $150,000 would qualify that person as rich.

When asked how much money per year would be necessary for them to consider themselves "rich," 53% mentioned an income of $150,000 or less, and 71% said an income of $300,000 would be enough.

Wealth marketing firm HNW Inc. considers an income of more than $350,000 per year enough to push someone into the top 1%.

But they also say most one percenters aren't aware of their exceptional status.

Who Pays Income Tax? How Much? And Is Everyone Paying Their Fair Share?

The Bottom 50% of earners pay almost nothing, and the Top 1% pay close to 40% of the income tax collected.

The Bottom 90%, which in 2008 included all returns with adjusted gross income of up to $114,000, were paying 30%, down from 44% in 1987.

That means that the Top 10% pay a whopping 70%!!!

Are the Bottom 90%, at only 30%, paying their fair share?

Very high incomes are produced not so much by wages and salaries but by capital gains and bonuses, which rise and fall with booms and busts.

In good years, the government gets a windfall and can't resist the urge to take on new spending commitments. In bad years, revenues collapse, but the spending can't be so easily rolled back.

As the tax system has grown more top-heavy, its revenues have also grown more volatile. The income-tax take spiked to an all-time high in 2000, hitting 10% of GDP for the first time ever. In 2010, it sank to 6.2%, its lowest level in more than 50 years.

Source: IRS and Investors Business Daily

Is Everyone Paying Their Fair Share?

Americans filed 140 million tax returns for calendar year 2008 income. 

Through the use of deductions, exemptions and credits, 52 million tax returns of the 140 million total returns (or 37% of all returns filed) paid zero federal income tax.

Source: Internal Revenue Service


 

Are The Wealthy Paying Their Fair Share?...

The Top 10% of taxpayers reported 46% of all adjusted gross income (AGI) nationwide in 2008 and paid 70%! of all federal income tax.  

In 1980, this group reported 32% of AGI and paid 49% of all federal income tax. 


Source: IRS
  

Why The Rich ARE Paying More Than Their Fair Share...

The top 5% of wage earners pay 60.6% of federal income taxes, while earning 37% of adjusted gross income.

The top 10% pay 71.2% of income taxes, while earning 48% of adjusted gross income.

The bottom 50% of income earners pay only 2.9% of federal income taxes.

The top 1% of income earners pay 40.4% of all federal income taxes, almost twice their share of adjusted gross income.

By contrast, the bottom 95% of income earners pay 39.4% of all federal income taxes.
 
That means the TOP 1% of income earners pay MORE federal income taxes than the BOTTOM 95%!