High-Income Americans Pay the Majority of Federal Taxes

“Hooray for the 1%” isn’t a cheer leaving most American’s lips, let alone anything they want to hear. But according to a recently released study by the Tax Foundation, most Americans would be surprised to learn that the richest percent of Americans pay over 39% of all Federal Income Tax! In absolute dollars, out of the $1.37 trillion collected from taxpayers, the richest 1% were responsible for over $542 billion of that amount. In fact, the richest 1% pay almost double the amount the next highest bracket pays: those with earnings in the top 2% to 5%, pay 20.5% of all Federal Income Tax. Surprising to most, the bottom 50% of all taxpayers pay just 2.8% of total taxes. Note that each section of this graphic excludes the next (e.g., the top 5% excludes the top 1%, etc).

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