Income taxes are irrelevant to the rich. Their income doesn’t come from salaries, it comes from capital gains, which is a different tax. 1% rate or 99% rate they’re not going to be paying much of anything in income tax.
It’s never grouped with income in these articles because “the rich don’t pay taxes” gets those outrage clicks. The truth is the top 10% pay over 70% of the taxes in this country. One could argue that’s not enough, but we should approach it from an honest and accurate perspective.
Income taxes are irrelevant to the rich. Their income doesn’t come from salaries, it comes from capital gains, which is a different tax. 1% rate or 99% rate they’re not going to be paying much of anything in income tax.
Capital gains is still income though, right? Even if it’s a different tax, it should still be grouped as income and to what he’s referring to.
It’s never grouped with income in these articles because “the rich don’t pay taxes” gets those outrage clicks. The truth is the top 10% pay over 70% of the taxes in this country. One could argue that’s not enough, but we should approach it from an honest and accurate perspective.
It isn’t.
Wealthiest Americans pay just 3.4% of income in taxes, investigation reveals. This is from 2022, but I’m not sure it’s gotten much better. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/apr/13/wealthiest-americans-tax-income-propublica-investigation