Politics aside, I would like to ask one specific question. Since we keep hearing from US politicians – especially this week in Washington DC – that “the rich must pay their fair share,” what exactly is that number? Pretty simple question, right? Why then does no one ever want to answer it and give an exact figure? Perhaps it is because the answer does not fit their narrative. Of course, the next logical question would be what do the wealthy pay now? What percentage of the national tax do they pay? It is a simple question to research, and this does have an answer which may surprise most. To that end, we offer the sources and quotes below:
Taxfoundation.org
“In 2018, the top 1 percent of taxpayers accounted for more income taxes paid than the bottom 90 percent combined. The top 1 percent of taxpayers paid roughly $615 billion, or 40.1 percent of all income taxes, while the bottom 90 percent paid about $440 billion, or 28.6 percent of all income taxes. ”
Forbes:
“The top One Percent in America earns at least $480,930 per year, according to recently released IRS data that compiled earnings/taxes paid from 2015. While that One Percent of Americans makes about 20% of all dollars earned in America, they pay 39% of all taxes paid to the American government.”
If you fast forward and research the years 2019 and 2020 similar results are provided. The difficulty is that you will also see article after article on how the superrich are tax cheats and hide their money from tax collection. Obviously, they have access to the best accountants and tax attorneys to avoid tax (legal). The claims of fraud from our perspective, however, get pretty thin when pointing to tax evasion (illegal). We just do not see proof of this on a massive scale, hard data points in the opposite direction and when it does occur seems to be a one-off. Why then is it a political talking point? A logical conclusion (and one we offer) is that the rich are an easy target for political gain. The irony (or hypocrisy) of this rhetoric is that most national politicians seem to easily fall into that demonic one percent – even on a government salary. Now, how does that happen?
