Let’s look at facts for the top 1% earners in the United States

Here is a flash bulletin, the top 1% of earners in the US don’t earn $250,000 per year, they earn six times that much, but they may actually being paying their fair share.  Take a look at a few facts shown below.

 Excerpts from an August 6 WJS article:

From Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama, the tax code has been tweaked and the economy has had its ups and downs, and the share of federal taxes paid by the top 5% and the top 1% has risen faster than their share of income:

In the 1980s, the top 5% averaged 22.6% of income and paid 28.5% of taxes.

In the 1990s, the top 5% averaged 25.3% of income and paid 34.3% of taxes

In the 2000s, the top 5% averaged 28.4% of the income and paid 40.3% of the taxes.

That doesn’t mean that the best-off are living on less. The top 1% averaged income of $1,530,773 this year (up $174,083 from 2004, when the data series begins) and paid federal taxes of all sorts of $422,915 (up $20,704 from 2004), according to estimates by the Tax Policy Center, a number-crunching joint venture of the Brookings Institution and Urban Institute.

For those in the top 1%, whose incomes are more volatile than others, the average tax bite in 2007 was 28.9%, below the 1995 Clinton-era peak (35.3%) but higher than the 1986 Reagan-era trough (24.6%.)

The rich do, on average, pay more of their income in taxes than the middle class. So do the super-rich—on average.

The annual Internal Revenue Service scorecard of the top 400 taxpayers—who reported average incomes of $200 million—showed they paid 19.9% of their adjusted gross income in federal income taxes in 2009, well above the rate paid by the middle class. Those with incomes between $100,000 and $200,000, for instance, paid about 12%. (The IRS tally for the top 400 counts only income reported on tax returns, and only income taxes. Neither the IRS nor CBO calculates figures for the 1% using the broader definitions of income and taxes.)

A growing number of Americans don’t pay any income tax. They don’t make enough or live on Social Security or are getting tax breaks targeted at low-wage workers.

In 2011, according to the Tax Policy Center, about 46% of households didn’t pay any U.S. income taxes, a proportion swollen because so many have seen paychecks shrink or evaporate. But even in the better years of the mid-2000s, roughly 40% of households didn’t pay any federal income tax.

Many did get hit by the payroll tax, which helps finance Social Security and Medicare. But about one-fifth of households didn’t pay either federal income or payroll taxes; many did pay state and local taxes.

More important than the debate over fair share is where are we going from here.  The answer at this point is nowhere good.  Both Obama and Romney are either lying to you, think you are a fool when it comes to taxes and spending or are fools themselves or more likely a combination of all of the above.  They both certainly think you are gullible and will swallow all their campaign gobbledygook.

Lowering the deficit and debt, and dealing with the many issues facing the Country cannot be done on the backs of Americans with incomes above $250,000, nor can it be done by lowering all taxes for all Americans and merely by cutting spending … spending on what you may ask.  And if you think it can be done by magically changing the tax code and its many deductions and exemptions without affecting you then you need a new definition of taxes.  Let’s say your tax rate is lowered to 10% from 15%; a good thing right?  But now consider that to accomplish that your deduction for mortgage interest and your tax-free employer-provided health care is eliminated or severely limited.  How happy are you about that 5% tax break now?

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