The Numbers Don’t Lie-The Wealthy Are Paying More Taxes

More, more, more! So many people demand that the wealthy pay more taxes. ‘They must pay their fair share,” goes the battle cry. The question is what really constitutes a fair share? Truth be told, many of the nations wealthy pay a smaller percentage of taxes than most. However, that doesn’t mean they aren’t paying their fair share. Want proof? Then look no further than the number the IRS reported: in 2014, those who made more than $100,000 paid a combined 79.5 percent of all federal income taxes.

A closer look at the numbers from the IRS shows that more than 148 million Americans filed a tax return in 2014. Of those, 23.7 million showed an AGI of a $100,000 or more. That equals 16 percent of all tax returns. Almost all of those returns reported tax due for a combined total of $1.079 trillion in taxes, which amounts to 79.5 percent of all federal income taxes paid in 2014.

Yes, the top 1 percent, or 16 percent in this case, make a lot more money than most people, but even though they have found many ways to lower their effective tax rate, they still pay nearly 80 percent of all the federal income taxes collected by the IRS. Is that a fair share? That’s a question for each person to answer.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2016/05/13/americans-who-make-more-than-100000-pay-80-of-federal-income-taxes/#50015fe02f7a/