A Quick Lesson On Taxes

The Lie: The Bush Tax cuts gave the rich a big advantage and made them pay even less (some go as far to say they pay less than the poor which of course, is not true) in taxes then they did. The cuts allowed the rich to get richer while the poor took the burdern.

The Truth: This comes from the IRS-

In 1999:
The top 1% of earners (income over $293,415) paid 36.18% of all federal income taxes.
The top 5% (over $120,846) paid 55.45% of all federal income taxes.
The top 10% (over $87,682) paid 66.45% of all federal income taxes.
The top 25% (over $52,965) paid 83.54% of all federal income taxes.
The top 50%, that is, the top HALF of all income earners paid 96% of all federal income taxes collected by the federal government.Here's the kicker...
The bottom 50% of all income earners paid 4% of all federal income taxes.

NOW, onto the year 2005:
The top 1% of income earners (over $364,657) paid 39.38% of all federal income taxes.
The top 5% (over $145,283) paid 59.67% of all federal income taxes.
The top 10% (over $103,912) paid 70.30% of all federal income taxes.
The top 25% (over $62,068) paid 85.99% of all federal income taxes.
The top 50% of income earners paid 96.93% of all federal income taxes.
AND, the bottom 50% of all income earners paid 3.07% of all federal income taxes.
So, under the Bush tax cuts, the top 10% have shouldered more of the overall tax burden than they did in 1999. In fact, when you consider ALL federal taxes, not only individual income taxes, the top 10% of income earners pay over 50% of all federal taxes! The top 5% of income earners make about 30% of the income and pay almost 60% of the taxes AND their share of the tax burden has grown faster than their share of the income under the Bush tax plan. All this while the overall tax burden for the poor has fallen to an all time low.

Tax breaks for the wealthy?

When taxes go down the rich pay the price. not the poor. the rich pay more shares of all federal income taxes.

According to www.taxfoundation.com a married couple making $60,000.00 paid $16800.00 in income taxes under Clinton, the same family pays $9000.00 under President Bush's tax plan. That is a difference of $7800.00 in the TAX payers’ favor. How can anybody with an ounce of common sense say that the tax cuts only favor the rich?

Again, Tax breaks for the wealthy?