The U.S. tax system is n’t visceral . We may know what wepersonally payin taxes , but have piddling mind what earners in other taxation bracket ( say , the richestof the rich ) pay as a percent of their income . According to a2017 pollconducted for NPR , what Americans know about the revenue enhancement system is “ limited and at time mutually exclusive . ”
Our tax system is more or less progressive — significance , theoretically , mass with more money pay more taxis — but it ’s not really that simple . The Wall Street Journal’sRichard Rubin employ candy to break it down in a manner that ’s easy to suffer :
Each color gummy bear representstaxpayersin a specific income square bracket , and the fleeceable M&Ms represent all of the U.S. income generated in a class . you may see that a single gummy bear — representing the top 1 percent of wage earner — takes home 15.3 percent of U.S. income , or more than the entire third - lowest tax angle bracket ( made up of many more gummy bear taxpayers ) does . However , the few people that are represented by that juicy gummy bear are deserving more than just their annual income , since they likely have stocks and other assets that are rising in economic value but are n’t tax until they ’re sold .
The yellowed M&Ms represent income taxis . That low gummy bear group pays 38 percent of America ’s income taxation . In contrast , the bottom 40 percent of taxpayer perplex money back on their revenue enhancement . When you expect at the piles of M&Ms , it does n’t await very average .
But when you add in the carmine M&Ms of payroll taxation , which fund Social Security and Medicare , you see that that blue gummy bear group pays much less than most other taxpayer : just 5.2 percent . The only mathematical group that yield less in paysheet taxis is the broken income bracket . The center income brackets , by contrast , pay more in payroll taxes than their share of the country ’s full income .
Is it a fair system ? It depends on who you call for . Congress is expected tobegin workingon a major taxation overhaul this fall , concentre largely on make out taxes . As you classify through the word , you may want to divulge out the mucilaginous bears again to see how it all pile up .
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