Hi, With apologies to the topic fairies .. Crist Clark wrote:
It matters how you look at income taxes (figures never lie, but liars figure). The top 3% of earners pay about 40% of all income taxes. The top 1/12% pay about 10% of the taxes. Why do the super rich guys want a flat tax? And the other obvious problem, you pay a lot of taxes, probably more than you realize, besides income tax.
The top few percent will pay a lower _percentage_ of their income to the government in tax than a middle earner would (a high earner will typically save more, or in other words their marginal propensity to save is higher) - they are also able to save more and afford better accountants who will help them avoid paying tax ! In the UK, income tax is hugely regressive - a middle earner may end up paying 51% of some proportion of their income in direct tax alone (combining NHIS contributions and income tax) - this then falls to 41% (combined) when the NHIS contributions hit a certain level. The tax burden on high earners is further reduced when one considers that indirect sales tax in the UK is 17.5%. -a