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Tuesday, April 26, 2005

WSJ on Distribution of Tax Burden

Today's Wall Street Journal has an interesting editorial, Who Pays What.  The conclusion:

An IRS study by a trio of tax wonks shows that, even after including Social Security taxes, the overall tax burden grew more progressive from 1979 to 1999. And while that burden became a tad less progressive after the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, the rich and upper middle class continued to pay far and away the bulk of U.S. taxes.

The study in question, by Michael Strudler and Tom Petska of the IRS and Ryan Petska of Ernst and Young, reports this data:

Share of Taxes (Income & Social Security) Paid By Income Classes

Category of Earners

1979

1999

1999 (at 2003 rates)

Top .1%

5.06%

11.05%

9.52%

Top 5%

14.69%

16.84%

17.75%

Top 20%

58.28%

68.17%

67.47%

Bottom 20%

1.22%

0.63%

0.65%

https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2005/04/wsj_on_distribu.html

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Listed below are links to weblogs that reference WSJ on Distribution of Tax Burden:

» How progressive is the income tax? from The Glittering Eye
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» TaxProf Blog: WSJ on Distribution of Tax Burden from Catfish 'n Cod v.2.0
Insty's odd comment is "GEORGE W. BUSH — CLOSET DEMOCRAT?", which is kind of odd, considering that the data presented are from 1979 and 1999. I don't think W was setting tax policy then... In fairness, though, we should look at the entire data set rath... [Read More]

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