SOURCE: Tax Policy Center, Share of Federal Taxes Under Current Law, By Cash Income Percentile, 2011; April 2011. Compiled by PGPF.
NOTE: Data for Cash Income in 2011 dollars.
*A quintile is one fifth of the distribution. The top quintile is the richest 20% of households, while the bottom is the poorest 20%.
The federal income tax system is generally designed to be “progressive”—that is, the tax rate increases as income rises. For example, the top 0.1 percent of households makes up a disproportionate amount of total income (8 percent), but also pays a disproportionate amount of federal taxes (13 percent).
For more information on taxes and federal revenues, see the PGPF Taxes Primer.
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