Introduction: According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the federal income tax rate for a median income family of four has shrunk to historically low levels. The fifty-year peak was 11.8% in 1981, and the low was 3.5% in 2008. In 2009, it increased to 4.6%.  The reduction is largely due to a series of cuts in tax rates, most recently the tax cuts passed in 2001 and 2003.  Expansions in tax credits for the middle class, such as the Child Tax Credit and the newly passed Making Work Pay tax credit have added to the decline.

An excerpt from the report: Middle-income Americans are now paying federal taxes at or near historically low levels, according to the latest available data. That’s true whether it comes to their federal income taxes or their total federal taxes.

Read the full report here.