Paul L. Caron
Dean





Wednesday, May 11, 2011

The Top 400 Taxpayers: Incomes Fell 21.5%, Tax Rates Rose 8.2% in 2008

The IRS's Statistics of Income Division has released The 400 Individual Income Tax Returns Reporting the Highest Adjusted Gross Incomes Each Year, 1992-2008.  Among the interesting aspects of the data for the Top 400 taxpayers:
  • The Top 400's average AGI fell 21.5%, to $270.5m (down from $344.8m in 2007)
  • The Top 400 received 1.31% of all AGI (down from 1.57% in 2007)
  • The Top 400's average net capital gain fell 32.7%, to $153.7m (down from $228.6m in 2007)
  • The Top 400 received 13.1% of all net capital gains (up from 10.1% in 2007)
  • The Top 400's average charitable deduction fell 20.4%, to $22.7m (down from $28.5m in 2007)
  • The Top 400 made 5.2% of all charitable deductions (down from 5.7% in 2007)
  • The Top 400's average federal income tax fell 14.6%, to $49.0m (down from $57.3m in 2007)
  • The Top 400 paid 1.9% of all federal income taxes (down from 2.1% in 2007)
  • The Top 400's average AMT increased 47.5%, to $3.2m (up from $2.1m in 2007)
  • The Top 400 paid 1.8% of all AMT (up from 1.3% in 2007)
  • The Top 400's average tax rate increased 8.2%, to 18.11% (up from 16.62% in 2007)

Update:

https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2011/05/the-top-400-.html

IRS News, Tax | Permalink

TrackBack URL for this entry:

https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c4eab53ef0154323c1c79970c

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference The Top 400 Taxpayers: Incomes Fell 21.5%, Tax Rates Rose 8.2% in 2008:

» The new Fabulous 400 from Roth & Company, P.C.
The IRS yesterday published "The 400 Individual Income Tax Returns Reporting the Highest Adjusted Gross Incomes Each Year, 1992-2008." The... [Read More]

Tracked on May 12, 2011 5:41:32 AM

Comments

Chris, if you are reading this site, I suspect you must know why many of us are not appalled. If you sample the annual income of any tax payer, on any given year, income of this size (token from a distributional perspective) is almost mall explained by classifying as income the realization of accumulated long-term capital gains. Are you appalled that capital gains (which are not indexed by inflation, which captures excess net profitability after taxation, and which represent capture many years' worth of work -- yes, money works) are taxed at a preferential rate? Does it make you feel better that every time we lower this rate, we collect more taxes to spend on entitlement programs and we make tax collections more progressive?

Posted by: MG | May 12, 2011 6:48:17 AM

Is anyone other than myself appalled that the top 400 have an avg tax rate of 18%?

Posted by: Chris | May 12, 2011 5:46:25 AM

@DLN -- the last page of the linked document sheds some light on that.

Posted by: Ah yes | May 12, 2011 5:18:22 AM

The interesting question would be how many of the top 400 in 1996 were in the top 400 in any other year. Why can't we know the answer?

Posted by: DLN | May 11, 2011 11:16:10 AM