July 1, 2005
MAKING THE CASE FOR THE FLAT TAX (via John Resnick):
The Nontaxpaying Affluent Grew by 15% in One Year (DAVID CAY JOHNSTON, 7/01/05, NY Times)
The number of affluent individuals and married couples who paid no federal income taxes jumped more than 15 percent in 2002, to 5,650, new government data showed yesterday.The chances of having a large income but not paying taxes on any of it are growing, according to the data, issued in the Internal Revenue Service's annual report to Congress on well-to-do Americans who live tax free. About one in every 436 high-income Americans paid no taxes in 2002, up from one in 531 in 2001 and one in 1,010 in 2000.
Over all, the top 2 percent of earners, the 2.5 million filers with income of $200,000 or more, paid almost 27 cents in taxes for each dollar of income they reported in 2002, other I.R.S. data showed. This group accounted for 53.5 percent of the income tax paid by all Americans.
Among that high-income group, however, almost 83,000, or one in 33, paid less than a dime in taxes for every dollar of income. An additional 79,000 paid less than 15 cents. The average for all Americans was 13 cents.
Rare enough for the MSM to acknowledge that the top 2% pay over 50% of all income taxes, but pretty amusing to see them do the spadework for a reform they're bound to hate. Posted by Orrin Judd at July 1, 2005 3:55 PM
So would a flat tax tax tax-free municipal bonds? Because that seems to be how most of these rich folks avoided paying income tax.
Interesting that all Americans paid an average of 13%. That seems to indicate that a low flat rate would bring in the same revenue. (Personally, I'd be willing to compromise with the left and have a few steps instead of one flat rate, as long as the mass of tax deductions/credits/exclusions/subsidies/regulations was eliminated or severely reduced.)
Posted by: PapayaSF at July 1, 2005 4:44 PMThe article conveniently skips from the 1st to the 4th reason for the reduction in income. You don't suppose charitable giving is in there anywhere, do you? Nah. Couldn't be. Selfish bastards.
Posted by: John Resnick at July 1, 2005 4:54 PM