Congress, Politics, Society

Report: Fifty Percent of Households Pay No Federal Income Taxes

A recent report shows that 47 percent of U.S. households pay no federal income taxes. The Tax Policy Center found that the percent of non-paying households had risen from 38 percent in 2007 to 47 percent this year.

Another interesting factoid is that households making more than $366,400 paid about 73 percent of the income taxes collected by the federal government.

This is not the image often presented in Washington when legislators complain about tax fairness for the middle class. White House adviser Paul Volcker appeared to call for higher taxes yesterday to deal with the rising deficit and Obama officials have been suggesting that the wealthy should face higher taxes to establish tax equity.

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149 thoughts on “Report: Fifty Percent of Households Pay No Federal Income Taxes”

  2. BVM,

    It is only against the law to not file. To not pay, I have to agree with you. But like assholes somethings you have to accept.

  4. the obvious question is what happened to the middle class…just like Ginger baker is suggesting…after 40 years of decimation we don’t have any money…thankyou

  5. Pimping propaganda from the Heritage Foundation. That’s about as funny as quoting those war criminals at AEI.

    Taxing the rich isn’t smart.

    Bullshit.

    Who gets taxed?

    People with assets. Because taxes are all essentially transactional fees.

    Who doesn’t have assets?

    The poor.

    One cannot get blood from a stone let a alone sense from Neocon troll.

    In the words of Biggie Smalls, “Mo’ money, mo’ trouble”. If you don’t want to be taxed, don’t be an avaricious greedy pig and learn to distinguish between “want” and “need” you ego worshiping nitwit. Because you having five homes and, in the words of Louis Black, hiring your own personal ball washer is more important than making sure everyone has health care and that safe bridges are built and roads maintained and courts operated and children kept from going hungry or keep dangerous criminals off the streets.

    my·o·pia \mī-ˈō-pē-ə\, n.

    1 : a condition in which the visual images come to a focus in front of the retina of the eye resulting especially in defective vision of distant objects
    2 : a lack of foresight or discernment : a narrow view of something

  7. I think it’s more like the top 5% have 20% of the wealth but pay 40% of the taxes. Tax the rich and they spend less discretionary income which affects the lower class! Not smart!

  9. Here is another fun fact I posted here yesterday on one of the teabagger threads:

    “Exxon Mobil even with 45.2 billion in profit paid no federal income tax in 2009….In fact in 2008, the GAO found that 2 out of 3 US Corporations paid no Federal Income Tax from 1998 through 2005.”

    http://thinkprogress.org/2010/04/06/exxon-tax/

  10. “Report 50% pay no federal income taxes.”

    Let’s blame Congress for being so beholden to Big Poverty.

    Here’s an interesting factoid:
    The top 50% of households received 87.74% of Adjusted Gross Income which left the bottom 50% to struggle to make ends meet on the remaining 12.26% AGI.

    http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250.html

  11. Gingerbaker,

    ” … IMO, it is quite true that the middle class has been treated the most unfairly as a demographic.”

    ================================================================

    I agree and wonder if that is because the middle class is the biggest threat to, what Mike S. calls, the oligarchy.

  13. In an ideal society, everyone would be paying taxes, because everyone would have a good job, and there would be no loopholes for the very wealthy to use to avoid paying Federal taxes. That the number of households which do not pay tax is rising is an indication of big problems with our economy.

    “Another interesting factoid is that households making more than $366,400 paid about 73 percent of the income taxes collected by the federal government.
    This is not the image often presented in Washington when legislators complain about tax fairness for the middle class.”

    That factoid is likely irrelevant to the issue of middle-class tax fairness. First of all, as Ryan pointed out above, we need to know what percentage of all gross income do the people who earn %366K+ earn, before we can conclude that the rich are being taxed unfairly. As I recall, the top 10% control about 90% of the wealth.

    Secondly, this factoid is only about Federal income tax. For the middle class, Federal Social Security taxes are often are as large a burden as the income taxes. This is decidedly not true for folks with taxable incomes of $366k and above.

    IMO, it is quite true that the middle class has been treated the most unfairly as a demographic.

  17. I’m curious to see what percentage of the nation’s wealth is controlled by those making more than $366,400. That’s the information you would need to make a fair comparison on tax burden.

  20. This is hardly surprising given the economy and stock market values of the last 18 months. Those who have lost their jobs (and that’s the largest number in decades) don’t pay taxes. Also, those folks whose income derives largely from Form 1099 sources (dividend, interest, capital gains, etc.) lost huge sums post Sept 15, 2008 when the bottom dropped out of the market. These losses were carried forwardand and used to off set income gains during 2009 with the result of little or no taxes paid on the upper end. But, certainly more folks in the middle and upper income levels kept their jobs. This would naturally skew the numbers.

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