Look at all taxes to see who pays most

In response to Mr. Joe H. Heater's recent letter regarding taxes it might be noted that a few facts were left out on just who does pay the taxes in our country.

He is right; approximately 71 percent of the tax dollars of federal income tax revenue is paid by the top earners in our country. Yes, the wealthy contribute the bulk of the income tax revenue that flows into the U.S. Treasury. However, they pay a much lesser percentage of their income in federal taxes. Warren Buffett paid 17.7percent of his income in taxes while his office staff paid on average of no less than 39.5percent of their income in taxes.

How can that be when lower wage earners only paid 29percent of the total federal tax dollars while the percentage of their income paid to taxes is so high? Very simple, there are more taxes than federal income taxes; there are payroll, state income, sales and Medicare taxes. Payroll taxes now generate more than one-third of federal tax revenue. The richest one percent of taxpayers contributes only 4.8 percent of revenue generated by payroll taxes Mr. Heater pointed out workers with AGI of less than $31,987 paid only 3percent of federal tax dollars down from 7percent in 1980.

This has occurred because of stagnant wages the redistribution of wealth. Lower wage earners did not see large increases in their income compared to high income earners during this period. High wage earners therefore contributed more federal dollars to the U.S. Treasury lowering the percentage of contribution by lower wage earners. It does appear that the wealthy are the most heavily burden with taxes but one can see that the tax burden is fairly evenly distributed.

Whereas the low wage earners pay less in federal tax dollars, they pay more in payroll taxes and their tax burden is at a much higher percentage of their income compared to the wealthy.

Eileen Schutte

Palatine