Tax the rich

You are correct when you say that the gap between the rich and poor is getting wider and if they want to tax the rich more that is OK by me but here is how the tax is currently distributed. The top 1% of wage earners pay 21.6% of all income tax collected The top 5% pay 60.6% of all income tax collected. The bottom 50% pay no income tax. Understand that everyone pays payroll tax (social security and Medicare) and that is no small amount at it equals about 90% of what income tax collects. If we tax the millionaires at 30%, as Obama , that will bring in an additional 5 billion dollars and that would reduce this year’s deficit from 1,300 billion to 1,295 billion. If you want the rich to pay more you can’t get it from income tax you must get it from capital gains. The reason the rich pay less is that most of their income comes from capital gains which are currently taxed at 15%. The reason capital gains are taxed at a lower rate is that the money these people invest has already been taxed as ordinary income and when they invest this after tax money they are taxed again on the profits so the rate is lower to encourage investment.