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THE FEW, THE PROUD

October 06, 2005

The IRS Statistics of Income Bulletin released this week shows that the top one percent of taxpayers in 2003 paid more than a third of all personal income taxes for the year. The top 10% paid 2/3 of the taxes.

The cutoff for the top 1% was $300,000 of income, according to a free Tax Analysts story.

Despite all of the "tax cuts for the rich" of recent years, the income tax remains highly progressive, while many lower income taxpayers pay no taxes at all, or even get tax subsidies via the earned income credit. This may be unwise; if 51% of the voters ever become tax-free, will they have any incentive to favor restrained public spending? After, it's not on their tab.

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