2016 Income Tax Breakdown – Top 20% Paid 95%

Posted by Tina

The numbers are in. They illustrate the absurdity of the left’s war chant, “No tax cuts for the rich!”

When the upper 20% of taxpayers pay 95% of the taxes and the bottom 50% pay zero, it’s obvious that any plan to lower tax rates will give “the rich” a tax cut. The Washington Examiner explains, from a different perspective, how the tax system works:

In explaining the complicated tax system the administration and congressional Republicans are trying to simplify, Mick Mulvaney played the role of professor at Georgetown University Wednesday night and dished the eye-popping numbers and impact of a middle class tax cut. …

… If you break the income tax universe into what we call quintiles, so equal sized 20 percent columns, the first two columns, the first quintile and the lower quintile, don’t pay any taxes at all. In fact they net positive. We pay them when they file a tax return.

That middle quintile, which you might describe, some people do, as middle class, pays an effective rate in the low single digits. And all of the taxes are paid by folks in the top two quintiles, and that last quintile pays almost fully, 95 percent I think, of the taxes.

People always ask all the time, ‘Why do you want to give a tax cut to the rich?’ Here’s the math. We have a progressive tax system, which means that if you make $1 million and I make $50,000, we both pay the exact same rate on the first, let’s say, $20,000. And then, from the next $20,000 up to my $50,000, and her next $20,000 to her next $50,000, we pay the same, I think it’s 12 percent of 15 percent, I can’t remember where the brackets are right now. And then she goes on to pay her higher rate on the stuff that she makes and I stop.

Well, if you want to give me, the middle class, a cut, take my 15 percent rate down to say 10 percent, and that gives the middle class a cut. Guess who else benefits from that, she does. She pays that same rate on the way up the brackets.

His conclusion, “You could sit there and do nothing but lower the rates on the middle class, and all other things being equal, you’re giving the rich a tax cut.

You would think the left would cheer the very progressive 95% figure. You would think the left would cheer the fact that the lower half pay nothing and in fact many of them get paid more when they file. But noooooooooooo. The rich could pay 100% and they would still scream that the rich don’t pay “their fair share!” Good Lord they are such liars!

The importance of tax cuts is the boost it will give our economy when the rich and the middle class have more to spend and invest.

Under President Obama our economy remained flat at under 2% growth. The middle class felt the squeeze of that blunted state in their pockets and in lost job opportunity.

The country has experienced 3% growth in the last two quarters. based on changes Trump has made, including regulation reforms and the promise of TAX CUTS! Imagine the explosion in investment and opportunity if those tax cuts are delivered!

Our government takes in trillions of dollars every year and still manages to spend more than it takes in, adding to our debt year after year. That’s obscene, especially when our government has done a very poor job of managing our money and creating a positive economic atmosphere. When you consider the blunted state of take home pay for the average American, when you consider the crumbling infrastructure across our land, and when you consider the wealth our representatives have wracked up for themselves, it’s alarming that so little has been done to protect the economic well being of average Americans. The well being of the people must become the focus of our representatives. Trump has taken the lead.

Eight years under Obama proved that redistribution doesn’t work. It fails to produce opportunity for those who aren’t rich. And class envy is an ugly empty emotional state. It doesn’t make people happier. It doesn’t improve economic conditions. It feeds dependency and disunity.

The rich will always be rich…can we just get over it? Can we finally let them be rich and invest in peace! Can we focus on the dream other Americans have to grow richer, to be comfortable…whatever that means to them? Can we embrace the idea, once again, that a rising tide lifts all boats…little boats as well as yachts?

Unless tax rates are geared to create wealth opportunity for the average worker nothing else will matter. We will remain weak, stuck, and in a perpetual state of need and want. Wealth invested in America is good for all Americans! Tax cuts will help to make that happen.

We want a tax plan to make America Great Again. They say up on the Hill they’re working on a tax plan…they better deliver!

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3 Responses to 2016 Income Tax Breakdown – Top 20% Paid 95%

  1. J. Soden says:

    Claiim has been made for years with the Demwits denying it. Nice to have numbers to back it up.
    And with all the $$ stored overseas, it would make sense to give corporations a tax-free window to bring that $$ back here to be used for reinvestment.

  2. jim says:

    Mean* income in the top 20% is $257,000 a year. The top 20% have 89% of the wealth in the US.

    * http://www.mathsisfun.com/definitions/mean.html

  3. Tina says:

    We don’t tax wealth, Jim. So your talking points argument has nothing to do with the issue.

    Since the top 20% pay almost all of the taxes…in 2016 it was 95%, your argument is also silly!

    But to understand how it the tax system works, director Mick Mulvaney of the OMB explains:

    “People always ask all the time, ‘Why do you want to give a tax cut to the rich?'” Mulvaney said.

    “Here’s the math. We have a progressive tax system, which means that if you make $1 million and I make $50,000, we both pay the exact same rate on the first, let’s say, $20,000. And then, from the next 20 up to my 50, and her next 20 to her next $50, we pay the same,” Mulvaney said. “And then she goes on to pay her higher rate on the stuff that she makes and I stop.

    “Well, if you want to give me, the middle class, a cut, take my 15 percent rate down to say 10 percent, and that gives the middle class a cut. Guess who else benefits from that? She does. She pays that same rate on the way up the brackets,” Mulvaney said.

    Democrats set up the progressive tax system. They also promote and push for higher taxes and bigger government (which gets little criticism even when it costs the middle and lower classes jobs and income).

    After sixty years they are running out of ways to tax the people. Is it any wonder it’s hair on fire time?

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