# what % of their income do you think the "rich" pay in federal taxes? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 8, 2012, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-their-income-do-you-think-the-rich-pay-in-federal-taxes/643455 "2012-12-08T21:48:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![colonial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/34f0e0/32.png) [@colonial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colonial)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-their-income-do-you-think-the-rich-pay-in-federal-taxes/643455/121 "2012-12-10T23:44:28Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > And as you read on you will find out you’re wrong. Which was the point. Instead of being cute how about just telling me what rate the poor wittle snowflakes do pay. What they _actually_ pay, if you don’t mind too much. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-their-income-do-you-think-the-rich-pay-in-federal-taxes/643455/122 "2012-12-10T23:46:29Z")
> [@colonial](#): > > Instead of being cute how about just telling me what rate the poor wittle snowflakes do pay. > What they _actually_ pay, if you don’t mind too much. It is in the thread. ---
**Author:** ![colonial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/34f0e0/32.png) [@colonial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colonial)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-their-income-do-you-think-the-rich-pay-in-federal-taxes/643455/123 "2012-12-10T23:53:01Z")
Excuse me if this site has already been linked: [Tax Foundation](http://taxfoundation.org/blog/tax-rate-paid-top-1-double-national-average) It says that in 2010 the top 1% paid an average of 23.39% Federal. Poor widdle Thaaaangs! My ass-- rachet it up to 35% or so. ---
**Author:** ![colonial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/34f0e0/32.png) [@colonial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colonial)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-their-income-do-you-think-the-rich-pay-in-federal-taxes/643455/124 "2012-12-10T23:54:09Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > It is in the thread. This reply of yours might reasonably be termed a dick. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-their-income-do-you-think-the-rich-pay-in-federal-taxes/643455/125 "2012-12-11T00:19:07Z")
> [@colonial](#): > > Excuse me if this site has already been linked: > > [Tax Foundation](http://taxfoundation.org/blog/tax-rate-paid-top-1-double-national-average) > > It says that in 2010 the top 1% paid an average of 23.39% Federal. > > Poor widdle Thaaaangs! > > My ass-- rachet it up to 35% or so. CBO says 28.5. Compared to “middle class” 's 10-15%. Your guesses were wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-their-income-do-you-think-the-rich-pay-in-federal-taxes/643455/126 "2012-12-11T00:40:13Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > CBO says 28.5. Compared to “middle class” 's 10-15%. Your guesses were wrong. If conservatives don’t trust the CBO, neither do I. I’m going with 23%. ---
**Author:** ![colonial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/34f0e0/32.png) [@colonial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colonial)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-their-income-do-you-think-the-rich-pay-in-federal-taxes/643455/127 "2012-12-11T03:17:52Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > CBO says 28.5. Compared to “middle class” 's 10-15%. Your guesses were wrong. You expect me to believe the top 1% with all their access to fancy accountants and tax lawyers can only get out from under ~1% of their 29.5% statutory rate? Until I get a link from you I will assume you don’t know how to read a data table. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-their-income-do-you-think-the-rich-pay-in-federal-taxes/643455/128 "2012-12-11T03:28:58Z")
> [@colonial](#): > > You expect me to believe the top 1% with all their access to fancy accountants > and tax lawyers can only get out from under ~1% of their 29.5% statutory rate? > > Until I get a link from you I will assume you don’t know how to read a data table. [http://cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/43373-Supplemental\_Tables\_Final.xls](http://cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/43373-Supplemental_Tables_Final.xls) First tab, top table. ---
**Author:** ![colonial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/34f0e0/32.png) [@colonial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colonial)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-their-income-do-you-think-the-rich-pay-in-federal-taxes/643455/129 "2012-12-11T03:37:50Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > [http://cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/43373-Supplemental\_Tables\_Final.xls](http://cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/43373-Supplemental_Tables_Final.xls) > > First tab, top table. I do not believe that tax _rate_ is synonymous with tax \*actually paid \*as a per cent of income, for reasons given earlier. ---
**Author:** ![DataX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@DataX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DataX)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-their-income-do-you-think-the-rich-pay-in-federal-taxes/643455/130 "2012-12-11T03:41:54Z")
> [@](#): > > It is of note that Romney’s reported 14% was based on income tax alone. Minimally he likely “paid” (via the fact that the companies that are the source of his income paid taxes) another 8% indirectly. Note that even Romney was not stupid enough to try to play that as his tax burden. Excellent point - we are talking about the party that bitched about polls over sampling democrats (which turned out not to be true) and I didn’t hear one person claim this corporate 8% stuff. In fairness, I did hear people bring up his donation to his “charity”. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-their-income-do-you-think-the-rich-pay-in-federal-taxes/643455/131 "2012-12-11T04:23:00Z")
> [@colonial](#): > > I do not believe that tax _rate_ is synonymous with tax \*actually paid \*as a per cent of income, > for reasons given earlier. It’s an “average tax rate”. From the 1st page: “Average tax rates are calculated by dividing tax liabilities by before-tax income.”. “Tax liabilities” equals “tax paid” - unless you want to go to jail. This table tracks the “effective tax rate”. Whether you believe it or not. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Niply\_Elder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8e8cbc/32.png) [@The\_Niply\_Elder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Niply_Elder)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-their-income-do-you-think-the-rich-pay-in-federal-taxes/643455/132 "2012-12-11T07:46:34Z")
Does this effective tax rate include state And local taxes as well? ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-their-income-do-you-think-the-rich-pay-in-federal-taxes/643455/133 "2012-12-11T07:54:46Z")
> [@The\_Niply\_Elder](#): > > Does this effective tax rate include state And local taxes as well? Federal taxes. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Niply\_Elder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8e8cbc/32.png) [@The\_Niply\_Elder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Niply_Elder)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-their-income-do-you-think-the-rich-pay-in-federal-taxes/643455/134 "2012-12-12T02:01:16Z")
So then this is incomplete data on “effective taxes paid”? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-their-income-do-you-think-the-rich-pay-in-federal-taxes/643455.md?page=6)