Facts on Individual Taxes
- People who earn more than $1 million a year get an average tax break of $143,000 from the Bush-era tax cuts, while people making about $50,000 a year get an average tax break of about $1,000. [Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, Individual Income and Estate Tax Provisions in the 2001-10 Tax Cuts, Table T11-0209, 07/05/11]
- Nearly 1,500 people who made more than a million dollars paid no federal income taxes in 2009. [National Economic Council, The Buffett Rule: A Basic Principle of Tax Fairness, 04/10/12]
- America’s 400 richest families have seen their effective federal income tax rate drop by 60% over the last 50 years, plummeting from 42% to 18%. [David Cay Johnston, Tax Notes, Is Our Tax System Helping Us Create Wealth?, 12/21/09, Comparing Income Growth and Income Tax Burdens in 1961 and 2006]
- Because of the low income tax rate on wealth, Mitt Romney pays a lower federal income tax rate than millions of middle-class families—just 14 percent on $21 million of income in 2010, most of it from Wall Street profits. [New York Times, For Romneys, Friendly Code Reduces Taxes, 01/25/12]
- A hedge fund manager making millions of dollars from speculating on oil futures pays a lower tax rate on his profits than a school teacher pays on the salary she earns from educating our children. [James B. Stewart, New York Times, Questioning the Dogma of Tax Rates, 08/19/11]
- A venture capitalist sheltering millions in offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands can legally avoid paying any U.S. taxes on his profits. [Jonathan Weisman, New York Times, Romney’s Returns Revive Scrutiny of Lawful Offshore Tax Shelters, 02/08/12]
