According to the Internal Revenue Service, in 2007 the top one-tenth of 1 percent of U.S. tax returns were filed by 141,000 people reporting an average income of $7.4 million. These returns accounted for nearly 12 percent of the nation's total adjusted gross income (AGI) and approximately 20 percent of all federal individual income taxes -- paying an average of $1.6 million apiece.

That same year, the 1.4 million people who constituted the top 1 percent of earners (AGI over $410,096) took in approximately 22.8 percent of the nation's income and paid 40.4 percent of all federal income taxes. This latter figure exceeded the 39.4 percent of the income tax burden that was shouldered by the 134 million people comprising the bottom 95 percent of all earners.

The top 5 percent of earners made 37.4 percent of the nation's income and paid 60.6 percent of all federal income taxes.

The top 10 percent of earners made 48.1 percent of the nation's income and paid 71.2 percent of all federal income taxes.

The top 25 percent of earners (AGI over $66,532) made 68.7 percent of the nation's income, and they paid 86.6 percent of all dollars collected as federal income tax.

The bottom 50 percent of earners made 12.3 percent of the nation's income and paid just 2.9 percent of all federal income taxes.


Adapted from "Summary of Latest Federal Individual Income Tax Data," by Gerald Prante (July 30, 2009).