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Re:Top 20% pay 95% of taxes by 1_2__4 on Friday October 27, 2017 @10:13AM (#15568468)
This is the Washington Examiner. They exist to be a conservative mouthpiece. Not a single thing they write is unbiased or even has any pretensions to be.
Re:Top 20% pay 95% of taxes by mi100hael on Friday October 27, 2017 @10:17AM (#15568503)
If the same words were penned under the Washington Post banner, would they still be conservatively biased?
Re:Top 20% pay 95% of taxes by mikeash on Friday October 27, 2017 @10:21AM (#15568545)
Yes. Lying that the rich pay a disproportionate amount of taxes is clear right-wing bias no matter who prints it.
Re:Top 20% pay 95% of taxes by mi100hael on Friday October 27, 2017 @10:27AM (#15568614)
What if the CBO prints it?

> Households in the highest income quintile received a little more than half of total before-tax income and paid more than two-thirds of all federal taxes in 2013 (see Figure 1). Households in other income groups received considerably smaller shares of before-tax income and paid considerably smaller shares of federal taxes.

https://www.cbo.gov/publication/51361

Re:Top 20% pay 95% of taxes by mikeash on Friday October 27, 2017 @10:32AM (#15568690)
I imagine that "more than two thirds of all federal taxes" is actually correct. There are two important differences from the article: "more than two thirds" is dramatically lower than "95%," and "all federal taxes" is not the same as "taxes."

I'm complaining about a media outlet lying by pretending that the federal income tax is the only tax that matters. You've responded by linking to a CBO publication that considers other taxes, not just income tax. That reinforces my point.

Re:Top 20% pay 95% of taxes by mi100hael on Friday October 27, 2017 @10:39AM (#15568765)
From that CBO link...

> In this report, CBO analyzed the distribution of four types of federal taxes: individual income taxes, payroll (or social insurance) taxes, corporate income taxes, and excise taxes.

So it's not like it's including sales or property taxes or whatever else. For all intents and purposes, that's "income" tax.

And the report is from 2013. This Washington Examiner article explicitly states (with a WSJ link for source) that the disparity has dramatically widened in recent years:

> That may be the highest ever. Just two years ago, it was 84 percent, according to the Wall Street Journal.

(https://www.wsj.com/articles/top-20-of-earners-pay-84-of-inc...)

Federal income tax provides nearly half of all federal revenue. It's not the only tax that matters, but it's certainly the most important and most visible. And any reforms will have the most impact to average citizens of any tax reform.

Re:Top 20% pay 95% of taxes by mikeash on Friday October 27, 2017 @10:44AM (#15568833)
Yes, that report doesn’t include all taxes. It’s also completely up front about it. It says “federal taxes” in the title and throughout the article.

I have no problem with analyzing a subset of taxes. I have a problem with analyzing a subset of taxes and lying about it by just saying “taxes.”

Re:Top 20% pay 95% of taxes by Retric on Saturday October 28, 2017 @11:43AM (#15575478)
Ignoring social security which caps at relatively low incomes and makes up such a high portion of federal taxes makes your analysis meaningless.

Compare someone making 1 billion per year in capital gains from foreign investments vs someone making 30k per year in social security.