This is a concise breakdown of it and the sentiment the folks have:
Some 56% of Americans say the amount they pay in taxes is “more than their fair share,” up from 51% who thought so in 2019. Unsurprisingly, nearly two out of every three Americans feel the wealthy don’t pay their fair share of taxes, and 61% said they would support raising taxes on households earning over $400,000.
But what constitutes a “fair share”?
While “fair” is subjective, most Americans might not understand how much of the tax burden the rich actually bear. The answer may surprise them.
According to the IRS, in 2020, the top 1% of taxpayers (about 1.5 million taxpayers), paid $722 billion in income taxes. That amount accounted for 42.3% of all income taxes paid, the highest percentage in modern history.
By contrast, the bottom 90% of taxpayers (about 142 million taxpayers) paid a combined $450 billion in income taxes, or just 26.3% of the total, their lowest percentage of the tax burden in decades. That means the top 1% of taxpayers pay a far greater share of the nation’s tax burden than 142 million of their neighbors combined.
Surely, the rich pay a larger amount because they earn the most money, right? Not exactly. In 2020, the top 1% of taxpayers earned 22% of all adjusted gross income; their 42.3% share of the income taxes is nearly twice their share of the nation’s income.
The opposite is true for the bottom 90%. They earned more than half, 50.5%, of the nation’s income but paid 26.3% of the taxes — roughly half of their share of the nation’s income.
This hasn’t always been the case. In 1980, the tax burden was much more evenly shared. The bottom 90% earned 68% of the nation’s income and paid 52% of the income taxes. The top 1% earned 9.6% of the nation’s income and paid 17% of the income taxes.
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