Academic

OVERALL FEDERAL TAX BURDEN: . The bottom quintile paid 4.3 percent of income in taxes, . The top?

By Glenn Reynolds

OVERALL FEDERAL TAX BURDEN:

. The bottom quintile paid 4.3 percent of income in taxes,
. The top quintile paid 25.8 percent of income in taxes,
. The top decile paid 27.5 percent of income in taxes,
. The top 5 percent paid 29.0 percent of income in taxes, and
. The top 1 percent paid 31.2 percent of income in taxes.

Plus this:

So the existence of Social Security, while it reduces the “progressivity” of the tax system, does not come close to reversing it. I would note also, though, that most economists who examine the “progressivity” of the Social Security system also take account of the Social Security benefit formula. This gives a much higher percent of income to low-income people than to high-income people.

Just so you know who’s paying for all this.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on March 01, 2011 (boomark / email).