Top earners do, in fact, pay the most

Regarding the July 17 letter, “middle pays more than fair share”:

The writer of the letter acknowledges that the top 1 percent of taxpayers pay 40 percent of all income taxes. Then he erroneously claims that the top 1 percent earns over 50 percent of all income. This is incorrect.

The latest figures from the IRS (for tax year 2006) show that while the top 1 percent do indeed pay 40 percent of all taxes, their share of total income is only 22 percent. The share of taxes they pay is nearly double the share of income they receive.

Furthermore, the data show the top 10 percent of earners pay 71 percent of all taxes.

Still further, the IRS data show the top 50 percent of taxpayers paid a whopping 97.1 percent of all income taxes, while those in the lower 50 percent paid a mere 2.9 percent.

It should also be noted that many in the lower 50 percent not only do not pay any income tax, but in fact receive a payment, courtesy of those who do, in the form of an “earned income tax credit.”

The writer of the letter can be comforted by the knowledge that the answer to his question about whether the other 99 percent of taxpayers are paying more than their “fair share” of income taxes, is a resounding yes! However, the data make manifestly clear that those paying more than their “fair share” of income taxes are not to be found in the “middle” as the writer claims, but rather in the top 10 percent who pay almost three quarters of total income tax. Like it or not, these are the facts about who’s paying what.

Winston Lessley