Taxes and Voting
According to the Tax Policy Center, a Washington, D.C., research organization, nearly half of U.S. households will pay no federal income taxes for 2009.
That’s up from the Tax Foundation’s 2006 estimate that 41 percent of the American population, or 121 million Americans, were completely outside the federal income tax system.
These Americans pay no federal income tax either because their incomes are too low or they have higher income but credits, deductions and exemptions that relieve them of tax liability.
This lack of income tax liability stands in stark contrast to the top 10 percent of earners, those households earning an average of $366,400 in 2006, who paid about 73 percent of federal income taxes. The top 25 percent paid 86 percent.
The bottom 50 percent of taxpayers paid less than 4 percent of federal income taxes collected.
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