This video is part of our Kite & Key Shorts series—easy to understand...but hard to forget.
Dreading Tax Day again? You’re not the only one. 61% of Americans report that money is a major source of stress in their lives.i
But some Americans have a lot more to worry about on Tax Day than others.
In the most recent year for which data is available (2019), taxpayers forked over $1.6 trillion in individual income taxes to the federal government. If every adult in the U.S. that year had split the bill evenly ... it would have come out to about $6,300 per person.ii
But they didn’t.
The top 50% of American earners paid 97% of all individual income taxes ... while the bottom half of taxpayers paid the remaining 3%.
That doesn’t mean, however, that lower-income Americans are getting a free ride. Most Americans actually pay more in payroll taxes than they do in income taxes.iii And the lowest-income Americans pay a larger percentage of their income to payroll taxes than the wealthiest ones.
So, whether you’re rich or not-so-rich ... you’ve still probably got a pretty good reason to grumble about Tax Day.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
- Americans paid $1.6 trillion in individual income taxes in 2019.
- The top 50% of American earners paid 97% of all individual income taxes.
- Most Americans pay more in payroll taxes than they do in income taxes.
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