The income tax burden on high-incomers rose for 2021, per IRS statistics.
The top 1% of individual filers paid 45.78% of all U.S. federal income taxes… up from 2020’s figure of 42.31%. They reported 26.3% of total adjusted gross income. Filers needed AGIs of at least $682,577 to earn their way into the top 1% category, compared with $548,336 in 2020, a $134,241 jump. It’s the largest one-year increase in AGI by far for this lucky group in the 20 years of statistics on the agency’s website.
The highest 5% paid 65.64% of total income tax and accounted for 41.99% of adjusted gross income. Each filer in this group had an AGI of $252,840 or more.
The top 10%, those with AGI of at least $169,800, bore 75.81% of the burden, while bringing in 52.61% of all individuals’ total adjusted gross income for the year.
The bottom 50% of filers paid 2.34% of the total federal income tax take. Their share is low because of refundable credits, especially in 2021 due to COVID-19. Filers in this bottom half of all individual taxpayers have AGI below $46,637.