^^^ yes, tax filers. And one corroborating fact is that 47% of tax filers actually pay zero net income taxes or receive more dollars back in the form of refundable tax credits than they paid in income tax in the first place ( a.k.a. a gov't handout via the IRS ) even if they don't 'consume' any gov't services !!!
(snip)"THE 47% CONTROVERSY. About Half of Americans aren’t paying federal income taxes. Can that be that right? First of all let me clarify that we are only talking about “Income” tax. But it is true!
A provocative statistic. Last July, the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center (a joint venture of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution) estimated that 47% of Americans would not owe a penny to the IRS for tax year 2009. The White House has projected the federal deficit at $1.6 trillion for 2010 – that’s about 10.6% of our GDP, a percentage unseen since the 1940s. Is it fair to the nation that so many Americans are legally avoiding federal income taxes? How does this happen?
How it happens
A major reason? Refundable tax credits. The Making Work Pay credit and other tax cuts accompanying the federal stimulus gave millions more of us a refund this time around. If these credits hadn’t appeared, the TPC says 38% of us still wouldn’t have owed federal income tax for 2009, thanks to assorted variables – astute tax planning, low taxable income, and other factors.
People who assume the rich are dodging taxes are misinformed.
1. The TPC found that only about 1.5% of those with taxable incomes of $1 million or more owed no federal income tax for 2009.
2. For those with taxable incomes from $500,000-$1,000,000, the estimate rises to just 2%.
3. If you made between $75,000-100,000 in taxable income in 2009, you may have been in the lucky 9.2% who the TPC says didn’t owe anything to the IRS.
4. In contrast, it figured that 61.8% of taxpayers who earned $20,000-30,000 last year and 47.5% of those with taxable incomes from $30,000-40,000 had no federal tax liability.
For another perspective and more information also see: Guess Who really Pays the Taxes
1. The wealthiest 1% of the people pay 37% of the taxes
2. The top 10% pay 68% of the tax bill
3. The bottom 50% pay only 3% of the tax bill
(snip) from
http://consumerboomer.com/dont-pay-i...ho-pays-taxes/
For clarification, according to the NY Times at
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/business/29tax.html the top 1% have annual incomes above $348k per year, the top 10% have incomes above $100k a year, and the bottom 50% have incomes less than $33k per year.
So yes, on the average, 60% of Americans ( who on the average are earning less than $60k per year ) are net 'takers' in the sense that they receive more direct gov't dollars or indirect dollar value of gov't services than they pay in income taxes. And yes this percentage / average income level recently took a 'bump' thanks to the Making Work Pay tax credit, thanks to SCHIP, thanks to Cash for Clunkers, thanks to the First Time Homebuyer Credit, thanks to hybrid vehicle tax credits, etc. Other than SCHIP and eligibility for other gov't services up to the 4 * official 'poverty' level, all of these programs credit equal dollars regardless of widely varying income levels of the recipients.
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