Top Half of Taxpayers Paid 97 Percent of All Income Tax Collected

The top half of American taxpayers paid 97.2 percent of the total amount of individual income taxes collected in 2015, while those in the bottom half paid only 2.8 percent, according to a Tax Foundation report.

The foundation split taxpayers in half for the purpose of the study of the latest available figures, with the top 50 percent defined as those earning more than $39,275 in adjusted gross income and the bottom 50 percent earning less than that.

Other results from the study included:

• The share of reported income earned by the top 1 percent of taxpayers rose slightly to 20.7 percent in 2015. Their share of federal individual income taxes fell slightly, to 39.0 percent.
• The top 1 percent, those who earn an adjusted gross income of $480,930 or more, paid a greater share of individual income taxes (39.0 percent) than the bottom 90 percent combined (29.4 percent).
• The top 1 percent of taxpayers paid a 27.1 percent individual income tax rate, which is more than seven times higher than taxpayers in the bottom 50 percent (3.6 percent).

"In 2015, IRS data show that taxpayers with higher incomes pay much higher average income tax rates than lower-income taxpayers," the report stated. "As household income increases, the IRS data show that average income tax rates rise. For example, taxpayers with AGIs between 10th and 5th percentiles ($138,031 and $195,778) paid an average effective rate of 14.0 percent — nearly four times the rate paid by those in the bottom 50 percent."

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