At a recent press conference with the president, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) insisted, “Voters sent a clear message to Republicans in the election: we must stand up for the middle class and ensure the wealthy pay their fair share.”
Somebody should have checked her math. Even CNBC (widely considered to have a left-leaning bias) is tiring of this “fair share” trope, admits wealthier Americans pay the highest tax rates:
According to new data from the IRS, people who make $1 million or more had an average tax rate of 20.4 percent in 2010. Tax filers who earned $30,000 to $50,000 paid an average rate of 4.8 percent, while those who made between $50,000 and $100,000 paid 7.7 percent. Those making under $30,000 had a negative effective rate, meaning they paid no federal income taxes after deductions and credits.
Put another way, millionaires pay a rate that’s more than four times that of the middle class.
One caveat: Rates go up as income goes up — but only to a point. Once you hit a certain magic number among super-high earners, your tax rates start to fall slightly.
According to the IRS, average tax rates increase as income increases — until you get to around $1.5 million in annual income. Once you make $2 million, average tax rates start to decrease. The average tax rate peaks at 25.1 percent for those making between $1.5 million and $2 million.
After that it starts to go down, and falls to 20.7 percent for those making $10 million or more.
So the millionaires who pay the highest average tax rates in America are those who make between $1.5 million and $2 million. …
Rates don’t fall all that much once you get above $10 million. Even among the top 400 earners in America, whose average income is more than $200 million, the average rate is 18 percent — still more than three times the rate paid by the middle class.
One thing’s for certain. If the president gets his way, whether you earn $30,000 or $200 million, you’re going to be paying a lot more in taxes without making much of a dent in the national debt.