Evolution of spin - "The top 1% pay....."

[underpants]

2007
Top 1% pays 39.38%
http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/22652.html

2008
Top 1% pays 38.02%
http://ntu.org/tax-basics/who-pays-income-taxes.html

“The Top 1% Pays...” and Other Tax Myths
You often read claims along the lines of “The top 1% of taxpayers pays 38% of all income taxes.” The implication, of course, is that the poor people whose returns showed incomes over $380,354 per year in 2008 are grossly overburdened, and we can't possibly consider closing tax loopholes, fighting tax havens or, God forbid, raising actual income tax rates on high incomes.


When someone tries to get you to focus on only one part of a complicated picture, it's a safe assumption they are trying to mislead you. In the area of individual income tax, that is an even safer bet when they don't tell you what share of income the top 1% earns. Exhibit A is the National Taxpayers Union. Under the category of “Tax Basics,” NTU gives ten years of tables showing “Who pays income taxes and how much?”

As you can see, the table shows percentiles of adjusted gross income (AGI), the AGI cutoff for that percentile, and how much that percentile paid in income taxes. No mention at all of what, say, the top 1% of returns actually earned in income. Even the conservative Tax Foundation is willing to tell you how much of all income the top 1% earned, and what their average tax rate was (20.00% and 23.27%, respectively), but not NTU.

http://middleclasspoliticaleconomist.blogspot.com/2011/08/top-1-pays-and-other-tax-myths.html

[valerief]

1. A right winger I work with once said, "Why should the rich pay all the taxes?"

I told her, "Because they have all the money."

[FarLeftFist]

2. So weird to hear rich people complain that they're not richer.

[valerief]

3. They're all victims. Poor dears. nt

[unblock]

5. it's not surprising; that greedy, self-absorbed attitude is necessary to become that wealthy.

either that or picking exceedingly wealthy parents, in which case odds are you inherited the same disorder.


what's really galling is hearing them whine about having to pay the same percentage as the middle class.
remember these are the same jerks who cried for a flat tax!

[abelenkpe]

4. the top one percent?

O boo hoo.

Nice blog! Thanks :)