Fwd: 2014-04-17 06:28

Heritage: 2014 Tax Day Chart: Who Pays the Most?

Which taxpayers experience the greatest tax burden—and who pays the most in taxes?

As Americans navigated the labyrinthine tax code ahead of tax day, many felt the sting of the President's myriad tax increases.

Despite calls for more taxes on the rich, the Heritage chart shown above reveals that the recent tax increases disproportionately affect the working wealthy.

The top 10 percent of all income earners paid 71 percent of federal income taxes in 2010, yet they earned 45 percent of all federal income. Compare that to the bottom 50 percent of earners, who earn 12 percent of income yet pay only 2 percent of federal income taxes.

So when Obama and advocates of higher federal taxes opine that the rich do not pay their "fair share," they are correct—affluent income-earners pay a whole lot more than they would pay if we had a proportional tax code instead of the highly progressive one we have today.