Citizens for Tax Justice, a research group that's been studying tax issues from its offices in Washington since 1979, provides the information we need.
When all taxes (not just income taxes) are taken into account, the lowest 20% of earners (who average about $12,400 per year), paid 16.0% of their income to taxes in 2009; and the next 20% (about $25,000/year), paid 20.5% in taxes.
So if we only examine these first two steps, the tax system looks like it is going to be progressive.
And it keeps looking progressive as we move further up the ladder: the middle 20% (about $33,400/year) give 25.3% of their income to various forms of taxation, and the next 20% (about $66,000/year) pay 28.5%.
So taxes are progressive for the bottom 80%.
But if we break the
top 20% down into smaller chunks, we find that progressivity starts to slow down, then it stops, and then it slips backwards for the top 1%.
Specifically, the next 10% (about $100,000/year) pay 30.2% of their income as taxes; the next 5% ($141,000/year) dole out 31.2% of their earnings for taxes; and the next 4% ($245,000/year) pay 31.6% to taxes.
You'll note that the progressivity is slowing down.
As for the top 1% -- those who take in $1.3 million per year on average -- they pay 30.8% of their income to taxes, which is a little
less than what the 9% just below them pay, and only a tiny bit more than what the segment between the 80th and 90th percentile pays.
http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html
