Comments on: Who is Paying Taxes?

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 19:36:52 +0000

This is totally an inaccurate picture of today’s tax burden and is the failing of looking simply at income taxes. It’s just as much BS as when the President says that “your taxes will not be raised”, referring only to income taxes. When you look at every part of our lives that is taxed outside of that, our tax burden today is tremendously huge. Sales tax, personal property tax, gasoline taxes, cell phone taxes, cable bill taxes, airline taxes, rental car taxes…….take a look at every single product and service you pay for, and there’s a tax associated with it. Consider all of that, and we’re taxed like you wouldn’t believe!!

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By: Beverly

Beverly — Thu, 13 May 2010 12:40:52 +0000

I hate paying taxes, too, but for some reason the Gov’t. says we must. However, it seems like the little person (poor) keep getting dumped on and the rich have 8 more homes to live in. Why do they need so many, when I can barely keep mine from going to foreclosure?! By the time I’m ready for SS, there won’t be any so who will take care of me then?

By: Natalie

Natalie — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:00:56 +0000

How about a graph that shows how much each income group pays in taxes as a percentage of their income. That would be a nice accompaniment to this graph. Would really show who is getting “socked” with taxes.

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By: Mary Diane Dolan

Mary Diane Dolan — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:52:17 +0000

No, I am not a freeloader, and, no, I do not understand this graph. One wedge of the “pie” in the pie-chart is labelled “2.9%.” We are talking about, I gather, 2.9% of federal revenues. The wedge is connected to a bracketed portion (I could almost say a bracked HALF) of the rectangle. This bracked portion is labelled with a percent RANGE: “50-100%.” Does it mean that from 50 to 100% of the small wedge of revenues comes from the bracketed area? It is unclear what the percent RANGE in the bracket means: Fifty to one-hundred percent OF WHAT?

By: steve

steve — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:37:48 +0000

I enjoy the colors, it’s pretty.

Otherwise it’s pretty useless as graphs go. This must have been created by a politician, or a Federal employee.

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By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:33:45 +0000

When the ambulance takes you (the uninsured) to the hospital it, for many, is the entry into indentured servitude.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 01:11:24 +0000

Imagine how much simpler this chart would look if we did not have a progressive income tax, but a system where everyone paid the same percentage.

Now imagine if that percentage were zero.

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By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:37:33 +0000

The higher income people pay all the income taxes and the lower income people, now close to 50%, not only pay no income taxes, but many get the earned income credit (that is actually a good program in my opinion) so they are paid free monet from those evil rich people.

The problem is, that percentage of non-payers is constantly increasing.

By: gordotx

gordotx — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:40:09 +0000

the majority of these comments reflect perfectly why we are becoming the scourge of the educated world

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By: sanford

sanford — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:08:28 +0000

To explain the graph:

The income levels on the far left have arbitrary break points for general simplicity. AND, THEY DO NOT CORRESPOND to the percentiles on the right hand side of the tall graph, which have different, unstated, breakpoints..

The horizontal colored bands represent the portion of the tax returns in that income band.

The hashed areas represent the percent in the income band that do not pay any taxes. The circle with the # inside of it represents is the percent of the tax returns in that income band that do not pay any tax.

The percent on the right hand edge of the graph is the percentile range of the tax returns contributing the taxes in the indicated slice of the pie.

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