Heritage Foundation Leadership for America

The Top 10 Percent of Income Earners Paid 70 Percent of Federal Income Tax

The U.S. tax system is highly progressive. The top 1 percent of income earners, by household, paid 39 percent of all federal income taxes in 2005, whereas the bottom 50 percent paid a little over 3 percent. Further, 32 percent of all tax returns filed in 2005 were from people who paid no federal income tax at all.

Levels of Household Income Earners and their Proportion of the Federal Income Tax in 2005

Source: SOI Bulletin, Statistics of Income Division, Table 6. Zero tax liability figures from The Tax Foundation, Summary of Latest Federal Individual Income Tax Data, Fiscal Fact No. 104.