I am hearing peole say things like, "The top 2 % of taxpayers pay 90% of the income tax." and "50% of the tax payers pay no taxes. "Increasing taxes on the wealthy won't help the deficit."
Where can I find real data on this subject?
The google is pretty good at this:
Yes, if the bottom 50% want a tax cut, they really want a negative tax, and if I say any more, my response will cross that odd political line not to be crossed. I do think it's fair to say that when items are taxed you get less of them, so logic tells me when you raise taxes (beyond that magic point on the Laffer curve) you'll actually get less revenue.
Here's another link (and of course, a bit of my opinion ).
Taxes as a % of GDP apparently can fluctuate between 17% and 20%. Below 17% starts to deplete legitimate government. Above 20% begins to depress the economy. The big trick is to orient government expenses to common good, without impairing individuals. E.g. Infrastructure maintenance is a big neglected issue (10% of fresh water is wasted through leaky supply, bridges built in the 1950's were designed to last 50 years, etc.).
I get it right from the horse's mouth - Google [statistics on income irs] and it will take you to their SOI page with all sorts of data. The periodic bulletins have studies on specific topics, and you can also download things like a combined Form 1040 for all of the USA, showing the number of people reporting something on each line and how much was reported.
For a small fee you can also get zip code level data. I've gotten that before for CA - it shows some interesting things, often about how overstated the assumptions are about how much people really earn.
-Tad
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