The question that was asked all through the election was: Do the rich pay taxes? Do they pay enough in taxes? The Democrats stated no, at least to the second question. The Republicans said yes, to both questions.
According to the new IRS statistics, it shows the tax burden on the top 1% of all filers was 37.4% of all federal income taxes in 2010. This is based upon the most recent year IRS has analyzed. But this is up from 36.3% the previous year.
The top 1% reported 18.9% of total adjusted gross income, also higher than the year before. However, the average tax rate paid by the top 1% fell slightly to 23.4% of their AGI.
The AGI requirement necessary to make the top 1% is at least $369,691. The highest 5% paid 59.1% of total income tax and accounted for 33.8% of all adjusted gross income. They each had AGI of at least $161,579.
The top 10% of filers, those with AGIs of $116,623 or more, bore 70.6% of the total tax burden while bringing in slightly more than 45% of the total adjusted gross income.
The bottom 50% of filers paid 2.36% of the total federal income tax. They are also the recipients of refundable tax credits. Their average tax rate was 2.4% of their AGI.
http://www.irs.gov/PUP/taxstats/productsandpubs/12infallbulincome.pdf