July 31, 2009
"Top 1% of American Tax Filers Pay 40.4% of Nation's Taxes"
By Katherine Elizabeth Tuggle
According to newly released Internal Revenue Service data, the top 1% of American tax filers earned 22.8% of the nation's income in 2007 and paid 40.4% of the nation's federal income tax.
This would mean the top 1% of tax filers pays more federal income tax than the bottom 95% of tax filers combined, according to a Tax Foundation analysis.
In 2007, income tax hit for the top 1% of tax returns hit an all time high, according to the Tax Foundation, a nonprofit group that historically has advocated for lower tax rates and a simple tax system. The top 1% of tax returns in the U.S. for that year had an average gross income of more than $410,000.
But Tax Foundation Senior Economist Gerald Prante said in a release that the trend for such disproportionately high income tax shares was likely to end in 2007 in light of the economic slump that began in 2008.