Why the Buffett Rule Is Needed
" The average tax rate paid by the very highest-income Americans has fallen to nearly the
lowest rate in over 50 years. The wealthiest 1-in-1,000 taxpayers pay barely a quarter of their
income in Federal income and payroll taxes today—half of what they would have contributed
in 1960. And, the top 400 richest Americans—all making over $110 million—paid only 18
percent of their income in income taxes in 2008.
Average tax rates for the highest income Americans have plummeted even as their incomes
have skyrocketed. Since 1979 the average after-tax income of the very wealthiest Americans –
the top 1 percent – has risen nearly four-fold. Over the same period, the middle sixty percent
of Americans saw their incomes rise just 40 percent. The typical CEO who used to earn about
30 times more than his or her worker now earns 110 times more.
Some of the richest Americans pay extraordinarily low tax rates—as they hire lawyers and
accountants to take particular advantage of loopholes and tax expenditures. The average tax
rate masks the fact that some high-income Americans pay near their statutory tax rate, while
others take advantage of tax expenditures and loopholes to pay extraordinarily low rates—and
it is these high-income taxpayers that the Buffett rule is meant to address .
Of millionaires in 2009, a full 22,000 households making more than $1 million annually
paid less than 15 percent of their income in income taxes — and 1,470 managed to
paid no federal income taxes on their million-plus-dollar incomes, according to IRS data.
Of the 400 highest income Americans, one out of every three in this group of the most
financially fortunate Americans paid less than 15 percent of their income in income
taxes in 2008.
Many high-income Americans are paying less in taxes than middle class Americans in taxes.
Nearly one-quarter of all millionaires (about 55,000 taxpayers) face a tax rate that is lower than
more than millions of middle-income taxpayers. This is fundamentally unfair."
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:qkq0uc7VBm8J:www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/Buffett_Rule_Report_Final.pdf+ABOUT+55,000+MILLIONAIRES+PAY+A+LOWER+EFFECTIVE+TAX+RATE+THAN+MILLIONS+OF+MIDDLE-INCOME+AMERICANS&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESh51HkWt_nQdMfXtwWJv9wXOvml0XMDWrcVGi5dg4kjCUODTzB52t-iv9IjbpsX79DWONnaqvemaccSM6q29lUxC6JVbGb2AARwQhU9uhhi_L1dTbqBeC6kF6_xqI3_VN2jXFFO&sig=AHIEtbQ0c6oNj3fi8BbyIgvgngug2m8J7A