The Tax Burden of the Rich
The short answer to the question of how much the rich pay in federal income taxes is . . . a lot! And the data for that assertion comes from the IRS.
Scott Hodge, president of the Tax Foundation, writes at their Tax Policy Blog that “(n)ewly released data from the IRS clearly debunks the conventional Beltway rhetoric that the "rich" are not paying their fair share of taxes.” He then continues:
“Indeed, the IRS data shows that in 2007—the most recent data available—the top 1 percent of taxpayers paid 40.4 percent of the total income taxes collected by the federal government. This is the highest percentage in modern history. By contrast, the top 1 percent paid 24.8 percent of the income tax burden in 1987, the year following the 1986 tax reform act.
“Remarkably, the share of the tax burden borne by the top 1 percent now exceeds the share paid by the bottom 95 percent of taxpayers combined. In 2007, the bottom 95 percent paid 39.4 percent of the income tax burden. This is down from the 58 percent of the total income tax burden they paid twenty years ago.
“To put this in perspective, the top 1 percent is comprised of just 1.4 million taxpayers and they pay a larger share of the income tax burden now than the bottom 134 million taxpayers combined.”
Below is a chart that Hodge included with his post. The complete study, Fiscal Facts 183, contains the supporting data as well as several charts. The Heritage Foundation has additional comments at their blog, The Foundry.
HT Carpe Diem and Taxing Tennessean
UPDATE (7/31/09) At American Thinker, citing the the same Tax Foundation study, Rick Moran also notes the "war on successful people continues unabated," and cites "Nancy Pelosi's choice comments yesterday referring to insurance companies as 'villains' is only the lates in in series of statements."