Your comments indicate you think paying taxes is charity. Charity is giving out of the goodness of your heart. Taxes are taken from you by threat of force. You can choose to be selfish and not give to charity, but try choosing to not pay your taxes. Then you'll understand the difference.

They give us jobs, pay the taxes which funds the government checks many of us receive each month and provide income goals for others to aspire to.

Ok, so since the "rich" don't pay their fair share of taxes, perhaps they could do a little forward thinking like American businesses have done prior to Obama assuming power.

People, I don't know too many "rich" that really "need" their income, so why not live off what you have for a couple of years? Take some time off, earn very little if any income, and REALLY screw up the Fed. I know you would see a collapse very,very fast.

Working hard to make money sure seems like a way to become evil according to the Libs, why not make them happy?

Geeze, perhaps I should have run for President.

I know a guy who pays $750,000 a year in taxes. He also helps support his entire extended family and most of the church, when people don't have work they come to him for a job. He tries to give people work and pays them well to help them out. I really don't think that paying $750,000 a year in taxes constitutes the rich not paying any taxes...

The Tax Foundation clearly summarizes IRS data every year, they have tons of this analysis, almost entirely without commentary and loaded with numbers. Look at the *numbers*.

http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/250.html

Visit any of the other "data" pages on the site for more perspective.

The topic is income taxes, don't try to deflect by including the regressive payroll taxes (which are your "contribution" to SS and Medicare funding).

Strictly in income taxes the top 1% pay 39.89% of all income taxes, while earning 22.06% of AGI. Their average tax rate is 22.79%.

The bottom 50% of tax filers pay 2.99% of income taxes collected, earn 12.51% of AGI, and pay average effective income tax rate of 3.01%.

What people like Charles and Hugo's Ghost aren't getting is that taxation is more than that line on your paystub. Every April we file taxes. Every worker has taxes taken out of their paycheck...well most everyone. If you claim 8 on your W-2, you will have little to none taken from your paycheck in Federal taxes. Then come filing time, some of these people who have children end up getting more in a refund that was deducted from their paychecks. I have this discussion everytime I hear someone I work with complain about the rich not paying their fair share. I ask them, "How much in Federal taxes was taken from your paycheck last year?" Answer: "$2,500." "OK, what kind of a refund did you get?" Answer: "With the earned income cedit I got back $5,000." OK, now who didn't pay their fair share? These same people who complain about the rich not paying their fair share not only do not pay one red cent in net taxes paid, they actually get more back in a refund than was deducted from their paychecks. Then I ask them care to guess where that refund came from? I usually raise my hand because I'm usually lucky to get back 25% of my deducted taxes. Before I bought a house I usually found myself paying more in every year.

the government spent 2.73 trillion in 2007. divide by 300 million population equals $9,100 per person. if anyone did not pay this amount in taxes last April they did not pay their "fair share". a family of four owed $36,400. if you did not pay taxes you should be on your knees thanking God for the people you are leaching off of.

Hey Charles, my wife made $450,000 and paid $165,000 in Federal Income Tax alone,(36%). Now I ask you Charles, what services did she recieve from the Feds that the average joe also recieved. I'll tell you, none. besides that she helped two kids thru school in which she did not get any tax breaks for. It is time for the Fair Tax, the wealthy will still pay more because they consume more, but it will be voluntary.

According to the IRS, the folks with the highest adjusted gross income pay the highest tax as a percentage of adjusted gross income.

According to the IRS's statistics for tax year 2006, the "rich" individuals forked over approximately 30% of AGI in tax, the "middle class" forked over 18% of AGI in tax and the bottom 40% of taxpayers forked over "zippity-doo-dah".

Why is it 40% of taxpayers got a free ride?

Why can't I be rich and fork over 30% of my AGI annually?

IRS data shows that in 1980, the top 1% earned 8.5% of all adjusted gross income but paid 19% of all taxes. By 2006, that same group's share of AGI had risen to 22%, but its share of taxes had soared to 40%. That is, their tax bill rose faster than their income share. Incomes for the poorest one-fifth of all earners have grown on average 3.9% a year since 1994. Meanwhile, those in the middle three-fifths of incomes — broadly speaking, the middle class — have grown by 3.4% to 3.6% a year.

It is true that 40% or more of tax revenues come from those who could be categorized as "rich". However, the disparity lies in the fact that much of their income is taxed at significantly lower rates (for example, 15% for capital gains on investments). Or, their tax burdens are otherwise offset or mitigated by tax credits and other mechanisms (for example, credits towards interest on loans, charitable contributions, et. all). So while it is true that the wealthy pay the majority of the taxes in the United States, the percentage of income to taxes paid by the remaining tax base (i.e., the "middle class") is double (30%) or even TRIPLE (45%).

Finally, the amount of tax revenues collected by the IRS have increased annually, which at face value would seem to indicate that the very wealthy are paying more taxes. The insideous fact is, is that the sheer amount of capital and wealth being funneled up into the highest tiers of society has reached the point that those carrying the least tax burden are at the same time those paying the most in taxes overall.

I don't hate the wealthy-I work hard every day with the goal of becoming wealthy. But the disparity between the economic burden carried by the most privileged compared to the poorest hasn't been this wide at any other point in time, in any other civilization, in the entirety of human history. Even in the end days of Rome the gap between Ceaser and the lowest citizen wasn't as wide (economically) as between a minimum wage earner in the United States and citizens in the upper 1%.

You can shove facts down the throats of liberal socialists about who pays what in income taxes until the fat lady sings. Liberals are not wired to understand facts that do not jive with what they feel. What liberals feel is the truth is the truth to them, no matter if the earth is round. What a liberal will say in retaliation to said facts about income tax proportions paid is something like this: "Well their proportion of payroll taxes is lower relative to income" or my personal favorite when debating these mindless left wing liberals, "Well, they cheat on their taxes." Mindless idiots.

I think people are getting the fact that businesses don't pay taxes and instead pass tax expenses onto the customer with the top wage earners paying income taxes.