Check your sources; the rich aren’t paying their fair share

A recent letter in the Reporter/herald stated that the ultra-rich 1% pay 42.3% of the personal income tax and that the federal government is making improper payments by federal agencies. He quotes sources that only support his claims and ignores sources that validate the other side of this story.

His major premise is that 1% of the population pays an overwhelming portion of the taxes; personal income tax is less than half of the federal government’s revenue source using data from both the Office of Management and Budget and the Congressional Budget Office. The other major source of revenue is Payroll taxes (FICA) which the 1% pay very little of because of the cap on earnings. Over half of the government revenue comes from other sources like payroll taxes, excise taxes, and corporate taxes. If you calculate the portion of government revenue the 1% pay in personal income tax it is less than 25% of federal revenue. According to the Feds, the 1% hold 32.1% of America’s wealth, therefore they are not paying their fair share of taxes from personal income taxes.

The Federal Government can be very inefficient in not preventing fraudulent claims against entitlement programs, but another issue is all the revenue that is lost by the government from ultra-rich tax breaks like inheritance tax and unearned income. Unearned income is taxed at a lower rate than the medium-american tax bracket of 24%. The only real difference is they are stealing the money legally.

The ultra-rich resent paying money for programs that they see as non-sustainable and they don’t need. This is not to say that we should all live as paupers or that ingenuity and hard work shouldn’t be rewarded, but to cut the lifeline for the less fortunate because of greed is simply unconscionable and selfserving.

— Richard Hansen, Loveland