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1 Patrick Fleenor, Latest Tax Data Shows Top 1% Paying over 30% of Total Federal Individual Income Taxes 1 (1997)

handle is hein.taxfoundation/srhcxz0001 and id is 1 raw text is: oIii; )ATION October 1997 No. 72 Latest Tax Data Shows Top 1% Paying Over 30% of Total Federal Individual Income Taxes Figure 1 Percent of Federal Individual Income Taxes Paid by Income Group, 1985 and 1995 Top 1% Top 5% Top 10% Top 25% 30.2% 21.8% 1995 1985 48.8% 38.8% 60.5% 51.5% 80.3% I 74.1% Top 50% 4. 6% Bottom 50% 7.2% 95.4% 92.8% I I I 80% 100% Source: Tax Foundation calculations based on preliminary IRS data. By Patrick Fleenor Economist Tax Foundation The latest data from the Internal Revenue Service shows that the top 1 percent of income earners in the country are paying close to a third of all federal individual income taxes. Preliminary data from the IRS on who pays federal income taxes, released to the Tax Foundation, shows that in 1995 (the latest year for which data is available) 30.2 percent of federal individual income taxes were paid by the top 1 percent of income earners approximately 1.17 million filers. Furthermore, a time series analysis of the data shows that since 1980 the share of federal individual income taxes borne by the top 5 percent of income earners has increased markedly. In 1980 these individuals paid 36.8 percent of federal individual income taxes. By 1995 their share had risen to almost half of the burden. This has led to a corresponding decline in the share of the tax burden shoul- dered by the remaining 95 percent of filers. Federal Individual Income Taxes Paid by Income Group Figure I presents a breakdown of total federal individual income tax payments by income percentile. It shows that in 1995 the top 1 percent of income earners - those with adjusted gross incomes (AGIs) in excess of $209,105 (see Table 1) - paid 30.2 percent of federal individual income taxes. This was considerably higher than the 21.8 percent paid by the top 1 percent in 1985. Similarly, the chart shows that in 1995 almost half of federal individual income taxes TAX FOL 0% 20% 40% 60% I I I I )1; f

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