The tax burden on the highest income earners has actually gone down, according to IRS statistics. That is not to say that they are not paying their share.
The top 1% of individual filers paid 38.77% of all U.S. income taxes for 2019, the most recent year IRS has analyzed.
That’s a drop from 2018’s figure of 40.08%. They reported 20.14% of total adjusted gross income, also lower than the year before.
Filers needed AGIs of at least $546,434 to earn their way into the top 1% category.
The highest 5% paid 59.44% of total income tax and accounted for 35.93% of adjusted gross income. Each filer in this group had an AGI of $221,572 or more.
The top 10%, those with AGIs of at least $154,589, bore 70.81% of the burden, while bringing in 47.30% of all individuals’ total adjusted gross income for the year.
The bottom 50% of filers paid 3.06% of the total federal income tax take. Their share is so low because the figures don’t include Social Security tax payments and because many of them get substantial income tax relief through refundable credits.
Filers in this bottom half of all individual taxpayers have AGIs below $44,269.