It's more than a bit deceiving. It's part of a systematic disinformation campaign. It goes hand-in-hand with the outrageous lie that the estate tax harms family farmers.
But cutting taxes on the rich is indefensible on the merits, so deception is the only option if you're rich and you don't want to pay taxes.
Income percentile - % individual income tax paid - % all taxes paid
Top 10% - 83.4% - 65%
Top 5% - 69.4% - 53%
Top 0.01% - 26.4% - 19.2%
Note that anyone in the bottom 50% actually has a negative income tax contribution since they get tax credits.
For the top 0.01% of income earners, the average total tax rate is 46.3%. Much higher than I originally thought.
[1]https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/tax-policy/tax-anal...
Oh, no, I'm sorry but it's the other way around.
The 'mass lie' is on the employer payroll tax side of the equation.
An employer payroll tax is for all purposes the same thing as an employee tax, but it's 'hidden' (i.e. you don't see it as a deduction) - but it's equally as oppressive.
Politicians love it because they can increase it without any visibility and no uproar.
It's about 30% in Sweden.
Also - up to ~50% income tax.
And then 25% VAT.
Can you imagine if Google had to take 30% of your salary off the top before they paid you?
And then you're effective rate wast 10% higher (like 40%?).
And then everything you bought was 25% taxed?
And the other form of 'hidden tax' - in many places, prices have to be quoted with VAT to hide the 'hit' they take.
Admittedly you get healthcare for that.
It's very reasonable to call this confiscation of wealth.
If you're a professional, you're giving by far and away most of your earnings to the government to have them manage it on your behalf.