Percentage Of Income Tax Revenue From Lower Brackets

The income tax percentage of lower bracket tax filers is around 3 percent. This means that those individuals who comprise the bottom percentage of tax earners pay less the smallest percentage of taxes, relative to other earners. Those income earners in the top 1 percent pay 40 percent of income taxes.

Misleading Statistic

Now, this number is misleading and can also be considered racist by some. This is because the majority of low income earners in the United States are African-Americans and Latinos. This number suggests that low-income earners do not pay their fair share in income taxes, relative to other income earners. These statistics also are used to suggest that low-income earners benefit more from social programs such as welfare, at the expense of higher income earners.

Other Taxes Paid

When you consider sales taxes and other forms of taxes that are not income based, the proportion of taxes that low-income earners pay is higher than that of other income groups. It is dangerous to simply focus on income tax percentages as a measure of tax revenue participation because it does not tell the entire story.