It may be instructive to clarify exactly what is considered a “fair share” of taxes to be paid by taxpayers of various income strata.
The Internal Revenue Service recently released its income and tax statistics for 2020. The top 1 percent of earners earned 22.2 percent of adjusted gross income yet paid 42.3 percent of the country’s income taxes. In short, the top 1 percent paid roughly double their share of taxes. This percentage is a two-decade high. The average tax rate for these earners is 26 percent.
The opinion, shared and espoused by President Joe Biden, that the top 1 percent don’t pay their “fair share” is false; the U.S. tax code is steeply progressive. Promoting the vague concept of “fair share” is nothing more than a long-standing mass appeal for larger government. The facts suggest that top earners pay more than their “fair share.”
