[simonsarris]

> but if actually taxed the wealthy as much as we tax the middle class

The top 10% of earners paid 74% of all income taxes. The top 25% paid 89%.

85% of all fed tax revenue is either income tax, corporate income tax, or SS taxes (on income).

[Anticlockwise]

What's your point? I think you're trying to argue that we tax the wealthy as much as the middle class, but this claim doesn't support that. The 10th percentile of earnings in the US is 190k. The 5th is 290k. The 10-5th percentile is reasonable to class as "upper middle class" in many high cost locales.

5th percentile plus might be a reasonable proxy for wealthy, but even if they pay half of income tax receipts, that's not proof that we tax their income as much as we tax the middle class's. Income for the top 5% is on a power law curve. The top 1% starts at 850k - if they contribute twice as much as someone at the top 5, (290k), their percent is still lower.

Meanwhile, capital gains are taxed lower than ordinary income, and the wealthy make most of their income from capital gains. And the most exotic loopholes for reducing taxes on wealth are most available for the ultra wealthy.

If someone earning 5m/year pays 1m/year in tax, they should fire their accountant. And also they're paying less in tax than most upper middle class folks by percentage.