Letter: A fairer way to consider tax data

Republicans make much of a set of data that shows how much of our federal income tax revenue comes from each income level. It shows that the bottom 40% of earners "pay zero" as if it is a bad thing that families subsisting on minimum wage and seniors subsisting on Social Security alone don't have to pay income taxes. It is often expressed as "no skin in the game."

But we all know that federal income taxes do not tell the whole story. We also pay sales taxes, FICA (Social Security) taxes, property taxes, state taxes, fees, etc. A fairer comparison of tax burden includes all taxes. Including all taxes, the poorest 20% earn 2.8% of all income and pay 2% of all taxes. The poorest 80% earn 38.3% of all income and pay 33.4% of taxes. The top 1% earn 20.9% of all income and pay 24.1% of taxes. We see that including all taxes, many of which are regressive, including our state income tax in Illinois, our overall system of taxes is just barely progressive and the poorest people in our society do indeed have a lot of "skin in the game." They pay at nearly the same rate as the top 1%.

This data is from 2019. The Trump tax cuts from 2020 worsened the problem giving an estimated $38 billion to foreign investors, $1.9 billion to the poorest 20% of Americans, and $77.6 billion to the top 1% of Americans. Meanwhile, currently the top 1% own over 30% of all wealth in the United States. That wealth grows mostly untaxed.

Jacqueline Buehring

Naperville