Tax facts

President Obama thinks the rich should pay more in taxes. Most people agree. We love to tax the rich because most of us don’t fall into that category. Most think the rich don’t pay their fair share.

Here are the facts based on IRS figures from 2006. (the last year available) Incomes listed are adjusted gross income.

The top 1 percent – making over $364,657 per year pay 39.38 percent of the total taxes

The top 5 percent of taxpayers – making more than $145, 283 per year pay 59.67 percent of the total tax burden.

The top 10 percent of taxpayers – those making more $103,912 pay 70.30 percent of all income taxes.

The top half - those making above $30,881 pay 96.93 percent of the income taxes.

The bottom half of the wage earners in this country pay only 3.07 percent of the tax burden.

The bottom 40 percent pay no income taxes.

From 2000 to 2004, the share of all individual income taxes paid by the bottom 40 percent dropped from zero percent to –4 percent, meaning that the average family in those quintiles received a subsidy from the IRS.

Bush tax cuts for the “rich”

The total federal revenue in 2003 when the Bush tax cuts went into effect was $178.5 billion. In 2006, the total revenue was $247.3 billion.

Tax revenues in 2006 were 18.4 percent of gross domestic product, which is above the 20-year, 40-year, and 60-year historical averages.

The 2000 budget baseline (figured before Bush cuts) projected 2006 revenues at $2,465 billion. They came in at $2,407 billion. Even with the tax cuts, the revenues came in only $58 billion below 2000 projections. The same 2000 budget baseline estimated 2006 spending at $2,407 billion. The actual spending came in at $2,654 billion – a whopping $514 billion above the estimate. In other words, one can contribute the Bush deficit 10 percent to revenue shortfall and 90 percent to overspending.

The top 1 percent paid 34.3 percent of the tax burden prior to the Bush cuts and 39.38 percent after. The Bush tax cuts on the rich actually resulted in the rich paying a higher percentage of the total tax burden. The Treasury Dept. estimates the top 1 percent would have paid about 31 percent had the Bush tax cuts not been enacted.