Since 1960 Tax Rates Increased 30% for Middle 20% of Americans, Drop 30% for Top 0.1%, Top 400 52%

Tags: Since 1960 Tax Rates Increased 30% for Middle 20% of Americans, Drop 30% for Top 0.1%, Top 400 52%

Wealth for the Common Good by Katrina Vanden Heuvel, Editor of http://www.thenation.com/ http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut/548904/%20wealth_for_the_common_good April 06, 2010

Taxpayers in the middle--who made more than the bottom 40 percent but less than the top 40 percent--saw an increase in their taxes, paying 15.9 percent of their incomes in total federal taxes in 1960 and 16.1 percent in 2004. Adding insult to injury, "Our children and grandchildren... will be asked to pay back, with interest, the trillions our federal government has been borrowing to offset our loss of tax revenue from wealthy taxpayers." ...

In 2007, if the top 0.1 percent of taxpayers had paid total federal taxes at the same rate as they paid in 1960, the federal treasury would have collected an additional $281.2 billion. If the top 400 had paid the same rate as it did in 1955 it would have meant an additional $47.7 billion in revenue. (The incomes of the top 400 have multiplied by 27 times--adjusted for inflation--since 1955, yet back then they paid over three times more of their incomes in federal income tax.) ...

Between 1960 to 2004, the top 0.1 percent of U.S. taxpayers have seen the share of their income paid in total federal taxes drop from 60 to 33.6 percent. The top 400 income-earners have seen the share of their income they pay in federal income tax alone plummet from 51.2 percent in 1955 to 16.6 percent in 2007. ...

Twenty-five percent of the largest US corporations had $1.1 trillion in gross sales in 2005 but paid no federal income taxes. Where is the debate on corporate tax rates and loopholes? If corporations are now people, can't they start paying taxes like people too? ...

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