Originally Posted by gixaholic

since 1979 the tax burden has moved from the poor/middle class to the rich... and it was done by lower taxes for all........


In 1979 the bottom 40% paid 50% of the tax burden.......

Originally Posted by CrankyYankee

Damn, that's some impressive work there...

~applause~

Originally Posted by StormanNorman

So, although their share of the tax burden dropped, so did their share of the income....enough to offset the gain in lower taxes. In short, this group (the bottom 40%) was doing worse in 2004 than they were in 1979.


Conclusions: Yes, more and more of the tax burden is shifting to the wealthy. However, they are also earning more and more of the money...and this offsets the additional tax burden. So much so that these groups (top 1%, 5%, & 10%) own larger shares of the disposable income today (2003) than they did in 1979.

Originally Posted by Sam

The top income earners throws those making 350,000/year in the same bracket with those earning 30 million/year except the person making 30 million just contacts Deutsche Bank or reports "losses" on their Philippines ferry company. ( I actually know someone who paid little income tax because of his failed ferry company) who has income in the millions.

Originally Posted by StormanNorman

Hi Gix,

I need to question some of your numbers here, Gix. Based on the IRS Historical Individual Tax Tables ( http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/04asastr.xls ), they say the following:
1) In 1979, the bottom 40% actually paid 3.2% of tax burden...not 50%. Maybe you misspoke here. At the same time, the bottome 40% earned 11.3% of the total income. This group owned ~ 12.6% of the disposable after tax income.
2) In 2003 (that is as far as the table goes) the bottom 40% actually paid 1.7% of tax burden, but earned 8.8% of the total income. This group owned ~ 9.8% of the disposable after tax income.

So, although their share of the tax burden dropped, so did their share of the income....enough to offset the gain in lower taxes. In short, this group (the bottom 40%) was doing worse in 2004 than they were in 1979.



Let's do the same comparisons for the the top 1%, 5%, and 10% of income earners.

Top 10%
1) In 1979, this group paid 49% of the taxes and earned 33.1% of the income. Their share of the disposable income was 30.3%

2) In 2003, this group paid 65.2% of the taxes and earned 43.8% of the income. Their share of the disposable income was 40.8%

Top 5%
1) In 1979, this group paid 37.3% of the taxes and earned 22.2% of the income. Their share of the disposable income was 19.7%

2) In 2003, this group paid 53.5% of the taxes and earned 32.5% of the income. Their share of the disposable income was 29.7%

Top 1%
1) In 1979, this group paid 19.8% of the taxes and earned 9.6% of the income. Their share of the disposable income was 7.9%

2) In 2003, this group paid 33.2% of the taxes and earned 17.5% of the income. Their share of the disposable income was 15.3%.

Conclusions: Yes, more and more of the tax burden is shifting to the wealthy. However, they are also earning more and more of the money...and this offsets the additional tax burden. So much so that these groups (top 1%, 5%, & 10%) own larger shares of the disposable income today (2003) than they did in 1979.