1311 L Street, NW
Washington, DC
CONTACT: Bob McIntyre,
202/626-3780
|
Citizens for Tax Justice 1311 L Street, NW Washington, DC |
WEDNESDAY, Feb. 17, 1999 CONTACT: Bob McIntyre, 202/626-3780 |
| The Kinds of Federal Taxes People Pay: income taxes & other taxes as shares of federal tax bills | |||
| Income in $1000's | Income taxes | Other taxes | Total Fed. Taxes |
| <$10 | none | all | 100% |
| $10-20 | none | all | 100% |
| $20-30 | 25% | 75% | 100% |
| $30-40 | 35% | 65% | 100% |
| $40-50 | 40% | 60% | 100% |
| $50-75 | 45% | 55% | 100% |
| $75-100 | 49% | 51% | 100% |
| $100-200 | 60% | 40% | 100% |
| $200+ | 86% | 14% | 100% |
| ALL | 55% | 45% | 100% |
| Addendum: | |||
| <$100,000 | 38% | 62% | 100% |
| >$100,000 | 75% | 25% | 100% |
| Source: Joint Committee on Taxation, Feb. 1999. | |||
Joint Committee on Taxation figures released yesterday by House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Archer (R-Tex.) indicate that the 10% cut in income tax rates promoted by congressional leaders would reduce overall federal taxes by a much higher percentage for top earners than for average taxpayers.
According to the figures released by Archer, income taxes amount to less than half the total federal tax load for all income groups except the over $100,000 group.
In fact, Archer's figures show that income taxes average only 38% of total federal taxes in the under $100,000 income groups, where FICA payroll taxes and excise taxes dominate.
| The Proposed 10% Federal Income Tax Cut as Shares of Total Federal Taxes by Income Group | ||||
| Income in $1000's | Federal Taxes / Income | GOP 10% Cut/ All Tax | ||
| All | Inc. Tax | Other | ||
| <$10 | 5.8% | –8.4% | 14.3% | –2.2% |
| $10-20 | 8.2% | –2.2% | 10.4% | –4.2% |
| $20-30 | 15.5% | 3.8% | 11.7% | –3.8% |
| $30-40 | 17.9% | 6.2% | 11.7% | –4.2% |
| $40-50 | 19.8% | 8.0% | 11.8% | –4.8% |
| $50-75 | 21.3% | 9.5% | 11.8% | –5.1% |
| $75-100 | 25.1% | 12.4% | 12.7% | –5.3% |
| $100-200 | 26.0% | 15.6% | 10.4% | –6.0% |
| $200+ | 25.2% | 21.8% | 3.4% | –8.2% |
| ALL | 21.6% | 11.8% | 9.8% | –5.9% |
| Addendum: | ||||
| <$100,000 | 19.2% | 7.3% | 11.9% | –4.6% |
| >$100,000 | 25.6% | 19.1% | 6.5% | –7.3% |
| Sources: CTJ calculations based on Joint Committee on Taxation figures for current taxes and CTJ estimates of the effects of the proposed 10% income tax cut. Note: JCT figures do not include corporate income taxes or state & local taxes. Because state & taxes are regressive, the table significantly overstates the progressivity of the total federal, state and local taxes Americans pay. | ||||
In contrast, income taxes are 75 percent of total federal taxes for those making more than $100,000.
Because the so-called "across-the-board" tax cut proposed by congressional leaders applies only to the progressive income tax, it disproportionately favors higher-income taxpayers. CTJ calculates that the plan would be only a 4.6 percent cut in overall federal taxes for taxpayers making less than $100,000, but a 7.3 percent cut in total taxes for those making more than $100,000.
Archer's figures also show that taxpayers making more than $100,000 pay 62 percent of total income taxes, confirming an earlier analysis by CTJ that these high-income taxpayers would get about 60% of the proposed income tax rate cuts. CTJ estimates of the distributional effects of the proposed 10% income tax rate reduction plan can be found at www.ctj.org.
Click here for a table detailing the Joint Committee figures released by Chairman Archer.
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