Are The Rich Really Ripping Us Off?

We hear a lot these days about how the rich are not paying their fair share of federal taxes. I would invite each of my readers to look carefully at the Wall Street Journal article referenced in the following link. You will see clearly that the rich certainly ARE paying their fair share of federal taxes, e.g., the top 1% of income earners are paying about 40% of the money flowing into the fed treasury.

An excerpt from this article reads: “In any event, raising tax rates has not over time succeeded in increasing tax shares from the rich. When the top income-tax rate was as high as 70% in the 1970s, the top 1% paid about 19% of all federal income taxes. At the current rate of 35% the top 1% pay just under 40% of all income taxes. Liberals say this is because the rich earn a larger share of income. But when tax rates are lower, the rich have less incentive to seek tax shelters and more incentive to put their money to work in income-earning, revenue-producing ventures.”

The whole article can be read by linking to http://on.wsj.com/wRaqz4.