Growls

In a special report, the Tax Foundation addresses the question of “which age groups pay more tax, and which receive more government spending?” The four key findings from their study were:

1. “As the Baby Boom generation prepares to retire, lawmakers should be aware of the distribution of taxes and government spending across age groups;
2. “America's youngest households aged 25 and under received $2.32 in government spending for each dollar of taxes paid in 2004. Middle-aged households aged 45 to 54 received $0.73 per tax dollar, and America's oldest households aged 75 and over received $4.93 per dollar of taxes paid;
3. “As a group, households aged 35 to 64 pay more in taxes than they receive in government spending, while households under age 35 and over age 64 receive more government spending than they pay in taxes. Overall between $376 billion and $872 billion per year is fiscally transferred from middle-aged groups to the youngest and oldest Americans each year through government taxes and spending;
4. “Over a lifetime, government spending follows a U-shaped pattern, with large education and welfare spending in youth and large Social Security and Medicare payments in old age. But even within each age group, there are large differences in taxes and government spending across households at different income levels.”

These are the key findings in the study. but there is much good, detaled information in this special report (you will need Adobe to read the entire report). Thanks, Tax Foundation, for exploring which Americans shoulder the nation’s tax burden.