It’s time for the wealthiest Americans and big corporations to pay their fair share of taxes. When they take unfair advantage of the many loopholes in the tax code the rest of us pick up the tab, according to Americans for Tax Fairness.
The nonprofit organization insist that tax laws continue to benefit the wealthiest Americans, citing the following facts:
- The richest 1% of Americans own 35% of the nation’s wealth. The bottom 80% own just 11% of the nation’s wealth.
- In the 1950s and 1960s, when the economy was booming, the wealthiest Americans paid a top income tax rate of 91%. Today, the top rate is 43.4%.
- The richest 1% pay an effective federal income tax rate of 24.7% in 2014; someone making an average of $75,000 is paying a 19.7% rate.
- The average federal income tax rate of the richest 400 Americans was just 20 percentin 2009.
- Taxing investment income at a much lower rate than salaries and wages are taxedloses $1.3 trillion over 10 years.
- 1,470 households reported income of more than $1 million in 2009 but paid zero federal income taxes on it.
- CEOs of major corporations earn nearly 300 times more than an average worker.
- 30 percent of income inequality is due to unfair taxes and budget cuts to services and benefits.
- The largest contributor to increasing income inequality has been changes in income from capital gains and dividends.
For more information click: Americans for Tax Fairness