Brad Sallows
Army.ca Legend
- Reaction score
- 8,403
- Points
- 1,040
For the benefit of others who might be curious, a few numbers to inform discussion. Source is here. (These stats take enough time that they always seem to lag by a couple of years, so figures are 2021 tax year.)How much of total federal income tax revenue is a "fair" share?
From Table 1:
Total number of individual tax returns filed: 29,330,240.
Total number in uppermost bracket (income $216,511 or more at that time): 457,320.
Fraction of filers in uppermost bracket: 1.56 %
Important: keep in mind total returns includes people who file returns just for benefits without any taxable income.
From Table 3:
Net federal tax: $186.773 billion
Paid by filers in uppermost bracket: $55.815 billion
Fraction of net federal tax paid by filers in uppermost bracket: 29.89 %
So 1.56% of the filers (the "very rich") are paying 29.89% of the total federal individual income tax take.
Whether or not that's "fair" is a subjective call by the reader.