“Middle-class families shouldn’t pay higher taxes than millionaires and billionaires. That’s pretty straightforward. It’s hard to argue against that,” President Obama said yesterday. I agree with Obama on this one. Then I read an interesting Fact Check piece titled: Are Rich Taxed Less than Secretaries?
According to this article, the data tells a different story. Stephen Ohlemacher writes, “…the wealthiest people in America pay a lot more in taxes than the middle class or the poor… They pay at a higher rate, and as a group, they contribute a much larger share of the overall taxes collected by the federal government.”
So just how big is the million dollar earner group and what percentage do they fork up to Uncle Sugar? In 2009, 237,000 households filed taxes with the IRS in amounts of $1 million or more in income. Of that amount less than 1% paid no taxes at all. Continue reading