Top 400 Earners in U.S. Averaged $345 Million in Income in 2007, IRS Says

[marmar]

Top 400 Earners in U.S Averaged $345 Million in 2007, IRS Says
By Ryan J. Donmoyer


Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) -- The 400 highest-earning U.S. households reported an average of $345 million in income in 2007, up 31 percent from a year earlier, IRS statistics show.

The average tax rate for the households fell to the lowest in almost 20 years.

The figures for 2007, the last year of an economic expansion, show that the average income reported by the top 400 earners more than doubled from $131.1 million in 2001. That year, Congress adopted tax cuts urged by then-President George W. Bush that Democrats say disproportionately benefits the wealthy.

Each household in the top 400 of earners paid an average tax rate of 16.6 percent, the lowest since the agency began tracking the data in 1992, the Internal Revenue Service statistics show. Their average effective tax rate was about half the 29.4 percent in 1993, the first year of President Bill Clinton’s administration, when taxes were increased.

The statistics underscore “two long-term trends: that income at the very top has exploded and their taxes have been cut dramatically,” said Chuck Marr, director of federal tax policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington research group that supports increasing taxes on high-income individuals.

The top 400 earners received a total $138 billion in 2007, up from $105.3 billion a year earlier. On an inflation-adjusted basis, their average income grew almost fivefold since 1992, the data show. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20603037&sid=ahZu17Yy1HvA

[dkf]

1. And we won't have any opportunity to tax this money at a fair rate til these people die

[izquierdista]

2. Earners?

Roofers and ditch diggers and nursing home workers earn their wages. These 400 are just thieves who have stumbled into a particularly lucrative way to sack and pillage.

[eppur_se_muova]

9. +1 nt

[Statistical]

3. A additional 71% marginal tax rate bracket on income > $10 mil sure would be nice.

That would be a cool $41B more revenue just from these 400 people.

$41B per year * 10 years = $410B. Hell that would pay half the cost of HCR right there.

[cbdo2007]

4. Great so I have a 24% tax rate and these people averaged 16.6%....Ok, Repubes, how is that fair?

They say they want an equal tax rate across the board...well this is their chance to explain why there isn't one.

I know, I know...capital gains tax. So they get their actual income, put it tax deferred into certain investments, then sell other investments for their actual living income for the lower tax rate.

This needs to be fixed!!!

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Capital gains tax ought to be the income tax rate + the FICA rate

(ie the rate before you reach the upper limit). So these multimillionaires ought to be paying CGT at above 45% at the moment. It wouldn't hurt if that went up to 50%.

[earthboundmisfit]

6. And that's just what they REPORTED.

n/t

[FarCenter]

7. These are the people who don't mind paying the banker $10 M if he's making them another $100 M

They also don't mind paying the politician to help.

These people, not the bankers nor corporate managers who are just their well-paid lackeys, are the real problem.

[cbdo2007]

8. The more I read this and think about it....the more ridiculous it is....

This is what we're fighting for people! Jump on board!!!

We need to get some real time feedback from Republicans on this and bring it up with those running for Office in November.

Ask any of them how it is fair for someone making $150 Million to pay LESS in taxes as someone making $70,000. I just can't even imagine what a rational answer on their end would be. There is NO WAY around this. They want fair taxes, great we'll give them fair taxes and they'll all sh*t themselves to have a 30% tax rate.

We need an Op-Ed in every newspaper in the country on Sunday asking anyone to explain how this is fair. We need to specifically ask this of Repube candidates in November and actually get some accountability from some of them. I'm going to do my part.