At issue is extension of Bush tax cuts for all

household size. “A twoperson household had to make $104,700, and a four-person household had to make $148,100 to hit the top quintile,” he said.

Whether to extend the Bush tax cuts for all taxpayers or for everyone except “rich” taxpayers is a major part of the battle in Congress, where Democrats have proposed extending the cuts for households with incomes below a cutoff point (which has ranged from $200,000 for individuals to $1 million). The Republican-majority House approved a plan extending the cuts for all taxpayers in the August vote Smith cited in his press release.

During the debate, politicians have made a range of claims about how much of the nation’s revenue comes from the wealthiest households. Smith’s 20 percent statistic avoids a pitfall PolitiFact has found in some of those statements.

In 2010 and 2011, Republicans ran afoul of the Truth-O-Meter by claiming the top 1 percent of wage earners paid more than 40 percent of “the entire revenue” and “all taxes.” That group paid more than 40 percent of all income taxes, but income taxes are only about half of the total federal revenue pie.

Smith also cites “all federal taxes” — the whole pie, including payroll, corporate income and excise taxes — but includes a lot more taxpayers. According to supplemental data for the July budget ofice report, there were 23.6 million households in the top 20 percent of wage earners and 1.1 million households in the top 1 percent.

The top 1 percent, the report says, earned