Amazing Financial Facts [Free Money Finance]
This piece from MSN Money has a ton of interesting money-related facts about who earns what in the US and who pays taxes. Here is the information along with some of my comments:
The highest-earning 1% of taxpayers in America make 22.06% of all income reported to the government. That's almost twice the 12.51% of total income earned collectively by the lowest-earning 50% of workers. Yes, 1.4 million taxpayers claim 22% of income earned while 68 million share just 12.5%.
Ok, no surprise here -- the cream of the crop earns a boatload of money. Not a shock at all.
When it comes to taxes paid, an even wider discrepancy shows itself, in reverse. Those earners in the top 1% pay 39.89% of all federal individual income taxes. The bottom 50% of earners pay just 2.99% of those taxes.
To note, these are only federal income taxes, but still the bottom 50% number is amazing to me. Half the working population pays only 3% of income taxes? That's almost unbelievable. No wonder so many in our country want the government to take over more and more services (like healthcare). If I was paying a sliver and getting full benefits, I'd probably want the same.
In 1986, the top 1% of earners reported 11% of all income and paid 26% of the income taxes; the lower-earning 50% made 17% of the income and paid 6% of the nation's individual income-tax bill.
The rich are getting richer and paying more of the bill. The poor/middle class are making less relatively and paying less in taxes.
An income of $31,988 or more puts you in the top half of taxpayers. Earning a bit more than twice that much -- $64,703 -- places you among the top 25% of all wage earners. You crack the elite top 10% if you earn $108,905 or more. And $388,807 buys top bragging rights: Earn that much or more, and you're among the top 1% of all American earners.
Really? Really? $32k per year puts you in the top half of all taxpayers? Holy cow, I would have guessed it was more like $50k. Now wonder the lower half pays so little in taxes -- they barely make anything. Then again, they get just as many benefits from the government, don't they? So shouldn't they pay the same? It's a difficult set of ideas to balance for sure.
I guess this is the debate we see playing out in front of us in the presidential election -- and why both candidates have a different view of what "middle class" means. The most interesting point to me is that 50% of the people basically pay nothing in federal income taxes, yet they have enough size to elect whoever they like and end up paying even less! That's a scary place to be for any country IMO.
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