The rich do not pay the most taxes, they pay ALL the taxes

Typical misleading tactic of saying "ALL the taxes" but meaning only the federal income tax, which only accounts for 42% of federal tax revenues: http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/background/numb.... Indeed, part of the reason refundable tax credits exist is that they were introduced to offset the regressive nature of the payroll tax, which accounts for 40% of federal tax revenue, and is not payed on income above ~$100k.

If you account for all levels of taxation, the U.S. has a pretty flat distributionn for the top 60% that tapers down for the bottom 40%: http://www.ctj.org/pdf/taxday2012.pdf. The top 60% pay between 25-30% of their income in taxes, and the bottom 40% pays between 17-21% of their income in taxes. The regressivity of state and local taxes means that the top 1% is taxed at a lower rate than the next 4%.

In my opinion, all the fighting about who pays the taxes obscures the fact that in the end, the distribution is pretty reasonable, if conservative. The bottom 99% pay about 80% of all taxes, which means that the government isn't overly dependent on the rich. The "middle 59%" (roughly, the lower middle class to the upper middle class), carries 70% of the tax burden. The bottom 40% only make 10% of all the income, and pay about 7% of all the taxes. We could cut their taxes substantially without having a major impact on revenue.

The article's definition of rich is a real stretch. The article says the top 40% pay all the taxes. But, the top 40% of households includes every household earning about $65,000 or more.[1]

Remember that this is household income, not individual. A household making $65,000 could consist of, say, two adults and three children. Depending on where in the country this household lives, that might amount to a difficult or comfortable standard of living, but not lavish in any case. This doesn't fit the prevailing understanding of the word "rich."

[1] Two-year-old source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_...

This is a sensationalist headline. The non-rich are stil taxed plenty in payroll tax, sales tax, gas tax, property tax, etc. Sure, the rich pay a lot more. But "ALL the taxes" is simplifying the issue.

I have not read the linked IRS/Census report within the article, but the CNBC article summarizes the IRS/Census report by saying that the non-rich pay negative tax because of the money they earn in return for welfare. The whole article and report lacks any nuance on the issue of who is paying what taxes.

The rich don't have income but capital, so first have a look how much tax is paid over that. The smart rich don't have taxable capital either, they lease everything in the areas that put a tax burden on capital and leave their capital in places where no such burden is.

you (and to a lesser extent the article) are ignoring the enormous burden of payroll taxes.

Junk

Then there is the part where somehow that means the rich deserve preferential treatment because of this and the other classes must be lazy worthless people...