how progressive our current tax system is Top 1%@28%, bot 99%@27%

[papau]

The IRS has revised the "Clinton" data presentation so it is really time consuming to get income tax average rate by income level.

But I was curious and went through the numbers (sources below)

The interesting facts are that Top 1% starts at $292,913 in year 2002.

That the bottom 99% paid income taxes (FIT and payroll) at a 27% rate.

And that the top 1% (over 200,000 per year income types) pay 26.6% plus a little over 1% for payroll, or about 28%

So that is how progressive our current tax system is - from 27% to 28%!

:-)




http://www.irs.gov/taxstats/article/0,,id=102886,00.html

Tax Stats at a Glance

Summary of Collections Before Refunds by Type of Return, FY 2002
Type of Return
Number
Gross Collections

of Returns (Millions of $)

Individual income tax <1> 130,904,889 1,037,734
Corporation income tax <1> 5,710,759 211,438
Employment taxes <1> 29,140,771 650,968 <2>
Gift tax <1> 278,926 1,709
Excise taxes <1> 885,078 52,137
Estate tax <1> 120,576 25,532

Selected Information from Returns Filed
Corporate Returns (TY 2000) <3>
Number filed with assets $250M or more 10,883
Percent of total corporate net income for firms with assets $250M or more 87.9%


Partnership Returns (TY 2001) <3>
Number of returns <3> 2,132,117

Individual Returns <3>
Top 1 percent Adjusted Gross Income break (TY 2001) <3,4>

$292,913
Top 10 percent AGI break (TY 2001) <3,4>

$92,754
Bottom 10 percent AGI break (TY 2001) <3,4>

$5,121

Median AGI (TY 2001) <3> $28,117
Percent claiming standard deductions (TY 2001) <3> 64.7%
Percent claiming itemized deductions (TY 2001) <3> 34.2%
Percent using paid preparers (TY 2001) <3> 56.8%
Percent e-filed (TY 2002) thru 4/25/2003 <5> 43.6%

Number of returns with AGI $1M or more (TY 2001) <6> 193,798
State with the highest number-California (TY 2001) <6> 30,843
State with the least number-North Dakota (TY 2001) <6> 132

Number of individual refunds (TY 2001) (millions) <3> 99.0
Individual refund amount (TY 2001) (billions of $) <3> $202.3

Earned Income Tax Credit (TY 2001) <3>:
Number of returns with credit (millions) <3> 19.6
Amount claimed (billions of $) <3> $33.4


Tax-exempt Entities (TY 2002)
Number of tax-exempt entities (Forms 990) <6> 1,582,114
Assets controlled by tax-exempt entities (billions of $) <6> $2,371


Taxpayer Assistance (FY 2002) <1>
Number assisted by writing, calling, or walking-in 94,838,748


Sources and footnotes:




http://www.irs.gov/taxstats/article/0,,id=98123,00.html

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/00in14ar.xls

[papau]

1. Yes I know: sales tax/state tax all mean bottom 99% pay higher total %

than top 1%

but what do you expect when the GOP are in power!

[papau]

2. Basic Math - the data I used for 2002 year was

FIT 1037734 plus payroll of 650968,

where over 200k per year types paid 453 FIT on AGI income of 1700, or at a 26.6% rate, to which one adds the payroll tax of about 1,4%, giving 28%

for the bottom 99% I used all those under 500k income,

so the payroll tax of 650 plus the FIT of 732 (calculated as the 1038 less the 306) over the total FIT AGI (of 6365 less the 1086 attributted to the over 500k folks) 5279, giving 1382 over 5279, or 26.2%,

which I rounded up to 27% because I felt like it.

[mhr]

3. See Perfectly Legal By David Cay Johnston

http://tinyurl.com/3gd4o

Interviews here:

http://tinyurl.com/2xcge (rm)
http://tinyurl.com/yto4z (mp3)

The following link is for a recent Frontline expose on corporate tax evasion.

http://tinyurl.com/yu9os (rm)

[stevebreeze]

4. another good read on taxes is America who pays the taxes

by Bartlett and Stele. It is out of print but your library might have it. Most of it is old but still very applicable.
:kick: