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![handle is hein.tera/stadeint0040 and id is 1 raw text is: Individual Income Tax Shares, Tax Year 2017
Income and Tax Shares
Tables 1 and 2 present statistics on AGI and income tax, by cu-
mulative percentiles of returns with positive AGI, for Tax Years
2008-2017. (All tables and figures included in this article are
for total individual income tax returns filed, excluding depen-
dent returns.)' The tables show distributions of AGI for each tax
year, by descending and ascending cumulative percentiles of re-
turns, respectively, and can be used to make comparisons across
cumulative percentile classes within each year. Table 1 shows
percentiles of returns cumulated downward, starting with the
highest income returns, and presents data for 14 different per-
centiles, from the top 0.001 percent through the top 50 percent
of all returns. Table 2 shows percentiles of returns cumulated
upward, starting with the lowest income returns, and presents
data for the bottom 5 percentiles: 50 percent, 75 percent, 90
percent, 95 percent, and 99 percent of all returns.
For TY 2017, nondependent taxpayers filed 143.3 million
individual income tax returns (Table 1), an increase of 1.7 per-
cent from the 140.9 million returns filed for TY 2016. Total
AGI increased 7.7 percent to $10.94 trillion in 2017, while total
income tax increased 11 percent to $1.6 trillion.
For TY 2017, the top 0.001 percent of individual income tax
returns had an AGI of at least $63.4 million, the peak during the
10 years of this study, which was an increase of 19.6 percent
from the previous year when the top 0.001 percent of tax returns
had an AGI of at least $53.1 million (Figure A). These returns
accounted for 2.3 percent of total AGI in TY 2017, up from 2
percent in TY 2016; and they also accounted for 3.9 percent of
the total income tax in TY 2017 (Figure B), up from 3.2 percent
in TY 2016. Total AGI for the 0.001 percentile increased by 25
percent from $204.9 billion in 2016 to $256.3 billion in 2017.
The average AGI for this percentile was $178.8 million (Figure
C). The average AGI reported on all returns was $76,321 in
comparison with $72,090 for the previous year.
For TY 2017, the average tax rate for the top 0.001 percent of
tax returns was 24.1 percent, up from the TY 2016 rate of 22.9
percent. As has been the case for all 10 years of this study, the
average tax rate for the top 0.001 percent remained lower than
the average tax rates of all percentiles from the top 0.01 percent
through the top 3 percent of returns (Figure D). Taxpayers in the
top 0.1 percent paid the highest average tax rate (26.9 percent),
and each successive percentile paid lower average tax rates, fall-
ing to 16 percent for the top 50 percent of returns.
For TY 2017, taxpayers filing returns that were in the top 1
percent reported an AGI of $515,371 or more, an increase from
the AGI floor for this group for TY 2016 ($480,804) (Figure E).
Figure A
Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) Threshold for the Top 0.001
Percent of Returns, Tax Years 2008-2017
AGI
threshold
$70,000,000
$60,000,000
$50,000,000
$40,000,000
$30,000,000
$20,000,000
$10,000,000
$0
Current dollars
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Tax year
[1] Constant dollars were calculated using the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' consumer price
index for urban consumers (CP1-U, 1990=100). For 2017 the CP1-U = 245.120.
NOTES: Figure is based on all individual income tax returns excluding dependents. AGI
threshold is the minimum amount of adjusted gross income needed for inclusion in each
percentile.
SOURCE: IRS, Statistics of Income Division, Individual Income Tax Shares, November 2019.
See Statistics oflncome-207 Individual Income Tax Returns (Complete Report), Publication 1304, Table 1.7 for income and tax data related to dependent returns.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.tera/stadeint0040&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)