How many individual Americans make over $250,000.00 a year? Is it really only about 5% of taxpayers?
That question is more complicated than you think. Individuals versus households are one issue but bigger issues are things like paper gains that are not liquid and could go ‘poof’ in an instant (a small business and stock gains are but a couple of examples).
The most literal way to take your question is simply by salary for one person in the household. Is that what you want? Do you care if it is consistent? Lots of people get one-time windfalls from family and home sales.
For individuals, it is much less. In 2004, the top five percent made over $157,000 per year. The percent making making over $250,000 would be much less, maybe 2%.
ETA: Sorry, that table is for households.
Interestingly, as many as 5-7% of US households may have a net worth of over $1,000,000. A reminder again that income is not the same as wealth.
In 2006, the top 5% of households made $166,000 or more. The mean number of earners in that category was 2. So individual earners making more than 250,000 would be a very small percentage of all wage earners in the country.