Comment by supplied_demand

==40.1% of US taxpayers on the low end of income distribution pay no income tax==

According to 2022 IRS data, average deductions for those who itemized totaled $43,686 in tax year 2022 [0]. The 2022 bottom two quintiles of income were under $44k [1]. That means in 2022 rich people AND poor people didn't pay income taxes on their first $45k of income. Is that unfair to rich people?

Worth noting, the 25 richest Americans paid an average effective tax rate of 13%, as of 2018 when IRS data was leaked [2].

==Top 1% (with the possible exception of a few billionaires) already pays through their nose.==

"While average effective tax rates barely changed in the US from 1945 to 2015, the average tax rates of high-income households fell sharply—from about 50 percent to 25 percent for the highest income 0.01 percent and from about 40 percent to about 25 percent for the top 1 percent." [3]

If the average effective rate hasn't changed, but the effective rate paid by the top 1% has fallen by ~40%, how is the difference made up? The 99% pay more.

[0] https://www.pgpf.org/article/7-key-charts-on-tax-breaks/

[1] https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDT1Y2022.B19081?q=income+qu...

[2] https://www.propublica.org/article/you-may-be-paying-a-highe...

[3] https://taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox/effective-income-tax-rate...