Tax

A tax is a compulsory charge or other levy imposed on an individual or a legal entity by a state or a functional equivalent of a state (e.g., tribes, secessionist movements or revolutionary movements). Taxes could also be imposed by a subnational entity.

Who pays

In the United States, the Congressional Budget Office produces a number of reports on the share of all federal taxes paid by taxpayers of various income levels. Their data for 2002 shows the following: (Table 2)

Related Topics:
United States - 2002

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• The top 1% of taxpayers by income pay 33% of all individual income taxes, and 22.7% of all federal taxes.
• The top 5% of taxpayers pay 54.5% of all individual income taxes, and 38.5% of all federal taxes.
• The top 10% of taxpayers pay 67.4% of all individual income taxes, and 50% of all federal taxes.
• The top quintile pays 82.5% of all individual income taxes, and 65.3% of all federal taxes.

Their numbers also show, that when broken down by quintile, the social insurance taxes are regressive on an effective tax rate basis only for the highest quintile, though that quintile pays the largest share of social insurance taxes (44%). (Table 1)

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