New IRS statistics show the burden on taxpayers. The top 1% of all filers paid 37.4% of all federal income taxes in 2010, the most recent year IRS has analyzed. That is up from 36.3% the previous year. They reported 18.9% of total adjusted gross income, also higher than the year before. However, the average tax rate paid by the top 1% fell slightly to 23.4% of their AGI.
Filers needed to have AGI of at least $369,691 to qualify for the top 1% of earners. The highest 5% paid 59.1% of total income tax and accounted for 33.8% of all adjusted gross income. They each had AGIs of $116,623 or more; bore 70.6% of the total tax burden while bringing in slightly more than 45% of the total adjusted gross income. The bottom 50% of filers paid 2.36% of the total federal income tax take, mainly because of refundable tax credits. The average tax rate was 2.4% of their AGI.
Two things to note about the data: The average tax rates would be higher if the IRS expressed them as a percentage of taxable income instead of AGI. Also, the Service excluded returns filed by dependents from the calculations this year.
