[morpheuskafka]

> A plurality of Americans don’t pay federal income taxes

What does a plurality even mean here? This is a binary question, so plurality and majority are the same thing. And I don't think it is factually correct that the majority of Americans do not pay income taxes.

[bonsai_spool]

I apologize on the wording, but this is an easy thing for you to Google!

https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/federal/latest-federal-in...

I didn't look hard but that's the first thing I found. Famously, Mitt Romney complained that 47% of Americans don't contribute to federal income tax revenue, which is what I was thinking of.

[matwood]

Side note...I hate this stat because it makes it sound like the rich are paying their share of taxes. The reality is that people who make large w2 income pay a large part of federal taxes, and while they would be considered rich they are not the ultra-rich we see in the news every day.

[bonsai_spool]

> .I hate this stat because it makes it sound like the rich are paying their share of taxes

Yes! I agree, I don't mean to sound like I support the status quo. In this particular case, I wanted to clarify that green card-holding immigrants carry a disproportionate amount of tax burden (but that is not to support the current state of things).

[matwood]

I didn't mean to imply you did support the status quo. And you're right about GC holders as they tend to make good money and fall into the worst spot tax wise - having a large w2 income.

[drdec]

People who complain about people not playing income taxes ignore payroll taxes.

[bonsai_spool]

Payroll taxes are just that - payroll taxes!

Income taxes are not payroll taxes

[zeroonetwothree]

Payrolls taxes are a tax based on (some of) your income. So they are a type of income tax in the broad sense.

[drdec]

Yes, technically payroll taxes are not income taxes.

And people who that x number of people do not pay income tax are implying they are paying no federal taxes when that is not true. It is a disingenuous argument.