Wrong again and as usual. Currently we have around 47% at the bottom paying no taxes. While the 1% at the top pay most taxes.
Glen
I have to believe you didnt think through your comment, which inaccurately reflects total tax collection. While (y)our numbers may be off, relatively insignificalty as they change from year to year, the 47% and 1% refer to Federal Income Tax, not taxes overall. We have a lot of other taxes besides Federal Income Tax, and those tend to not be, or not be as, progressive. State tax, local tax, social security tax, sales tax, medicare tax, payroll tax. Pew Research tells us that less than half of government revenue is from individual income taxes.
Total Effective tax rates are not that diverse throughout the economy. And in fact the top 1% are not paying the highest percentages.
Again, the numbers change from year to year.
According to Citizens for Tax Justice, the share of total taxes for each income group tends to be pretty close to the total share of income.
According the the Washington Post, the vast majority of houeholds that don't pay Federal Income Tax are either elderly or are paying paying Social Security and Medicare taxes. About 22% of people not paying Federal Income Taxes are retirees. Only about 8% are not paying Federal Taxes at all. The bulk of these people are disabled, students or extremely poor.
The tax reductions for the very poor, are often put in by Republicans, tied in with larger tax cuts for the wealthy.
Another study showed that for people from their 20's to the early 60's, over 80% are paying Federal Income and Payroll taxes, it falls to about 30%at age 80.