Politicians on the Left portray the rich in America as a bunch of freeloaders who don’t pay their fair share of taxes.
These politicians suggest that many of society’s problems could be solved if only the rich would be less greedy and hand over more of their money to the government to spend.
There are three problems with this argument.
First, many of society’s problems are caused by the government spending too much—inflation is a prime example.
Second, the argument ignores the greed of the politicians who want to spend other people’s money.
Third—and this is the crux of the matter—the rich already pay a disproportionate share of federal taxes.
Here are the numbers, according to the government forecasters at the Joint Committee on Taxation.
In 2024, about 1 out of 180 American taxpayers will make $1 million or more of total income, based on a broad definition of income used by the forecasters.
Altogether, these million-dollar earners will earn about 15% of the nation’s income next year. But they will pay 39% of all federal income taxes.
The million-dollar earners will pay an average federal income tax rate that is 3.5 times higher than the other 99.4% of Americans.
By PrestonBrashers, Former Research Fellow, Tax Policy
Preston was a Research Fellow for tax policy in The Heritage Foundation’s Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget.
