Sunday, April 7, 2013

Who pays taxes in the US?

We hear a lot of billionaire-inspired, Fox News-promulgated crap about poor and middle-income Americans not paying any taxes.

Citizens for Tax Justice debunks that myth:
Everyone in America pays taxes. Everyone who works pays federal payroll taxes. Everyone who buys gasoline pays federal and state gas taxes. People who shop in stores pay the sales taxes that most state and local governments impose. State and local property taxes affect everyone who owns or rents a home. (Even renters pay property taxes because landlords pass some of the tax on to them in the form of higher rents). Most states also have income taxes, most of which are not particularly progressive.
CTJ concludes the poorest fifth of Americans pay 2.1 percent of total taxes and receive 3.3 percent of total income. The top 1 percent pay 24 percent of total taxes and receive 21.9 percent of total income.

So put that in your pipe, Rupert Murdoch, and smoke it.