Originally Posted by
jungle
Actually that is due to the top 400 making most of their income through capital gains, it is not Federal income tax rates.
Take a look at the overall picture:
How Much Americans Actually Pay in Taxes - NYTimes.com
But the REAL effective rate for most of us is around 40%, this is including all taxes at the State, Federal and Local level.
Your real tax rate: 40% - MSN Money
Even with a defacto flat tax the top 1% are still contributing about 40% of the Federal tab, and the top 50% are kicking in about 97% of the Federal tab.
I only claim one exemption, and my breakdown for 2010 is as follows:
Federal - 13.4%
State - 4.7% (GA)
Medicare - 1.5%
SS - 6.6%
Income tax liability (I'm overpaying, by the way) is 26.2%... Taking the easy way out, TurboTax (I don't file flight crew tax deductions, but based on the returns I've heard I think I'll start), my return was 19% of the total amount paid... so, my effective rate for 2010 was 21%
Judging by the numbers of similar longevity pilots at my company, I could have had an effective tax rate of 13.1% approximately, based on the available deductions for flight crew...