RW friend says "Top 10% pay 70% of all taxes, taking care of that 47%." True?

[econoclast]

11. Actual data

This is for Federal Income Tax, tax year 2008:

I would like to give you the actual data tables... But I am doing this from my phone and can't get that from here. But this seems accurate ....


Share of the Bottom 50 Percent

In 2008, the bottom 50 percent of taxpayers, ranked by income, paid an average tax rate of 2.59 percent. The median taxpayer reported an income of $33,048 on his tax return that year -- meaning that half of all filers reported income above that point and half reported income below it. All told, the bottom 50 percent of taxpayers paid 2.7 percent of the total income tax revenue received in 2008. Conversely, the top 50 percent of taxpayers paid 97 percent of the tax burden in 2008.

The Top 10 Percent

In 2008, 10 percent of the taxpayers paid 69.94 percent of the federal taxes, and paid an average of 18.71 percent of their income in taxes. To qualify for this group, you would have had to have earned at least $113,799 for the year.

The Top 5 Percent

Five percent of the taxpayers paid 58 percent of the tax bill in 2008, with an average tax rate of 20.7 percent, according to the IRS. This group earned at least $159,619 for the year.

The Top 1 Percent

One percent of the population paid 38.02 percent of the tax burden in 2008, and reported an average tax rate of 23.27 percent.

Again this is Federal income tax only.