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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I hear people saying the rich should be taxed more. Who qualifies as rich? According to link below there is an average tax rate of 21% on people earning $170-250,000. This sounds quite low by international standards but only reflects federal taxes. What do you think the average tax rate would be if you included state taxes and social security? Should these earners be paying more?

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/tax-irs-income-taxes-who-pays-the-most-and-least/[/quote]

Taxes should rise at $1,000,000 in earnings and should go up a few more times, to 35%-50% on very high levels of income, including stock-based awards, etc.  If we had done this a while back, we wouldn't have the revolution-baiting levels of income distribution we have now.

The key points from the article you linked to, with bolding by me:
 
"But the average tax rate paid by the top 1% has declined in recent decade...in 2001, the nation's top earners had an effective tax rate of 27.6% — almost two percentage points higher than their current rate.

[b]The analysis also found that the top 0.1% of earners, with at least $3.8 million in annual income, pay an effective federal tax rate of 25.7%, which is a hair lower than the 25.9% tax rate for the top 1%.[/b]

Ultra-wealthy households often have access to tax loopholes and write-offs that aren't available to salaried workers who receive W2s, and much of their income can also stem from capital gains, which has a lower tax rate than earned income.

About 6 in 10 Americans said they were bothered by the feeling that corporations and the rich aren't paying their fair share in taxes, Pew Research found last year. That may explain why about two-thirds of those polled said they support higher taxes on the rich."[/quote]

fixing my bolding fail[/quote]

Why the $1 million threshold? Why not $300,000 or even $400,000? 21% is low. [/quote]

Those people aren't paying 21%; they are paying 24%-25%

But depending on where you live, $300,000 is just upper middle class.  Someone making $5 million or $20 million a year should pay a meaningfully higher tax rate (and rhigher [b]rate[/b], not just tax in absolute terms)[/quote]

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