Middle-class Americans finally have proof they’re being taxed more heavily than many millionaires — and the “Buffett Rule” has the numbers to back it up.
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, a quarter of millionaire households in the U.S. — 94,500 of them — pay a smaller share of their income in federal taxes than do 10 million families with moderate incomes. President Obama has pushed to raise taxes on the wealthy to ensure that they are taxed at the same rate as the middle class.
Obama called his proposal the Buffett Rule after billionaire Warren Buffett famously complained that he pays a lower tax rate than other people in his office.
The report found that when all federal taxes are taken into account, households that earned more than $1 million in 2006 paid as little as 24 percent to the IRS. Families making less than $100,000 a year faced a tax rate exceeding 26.5 percent.
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, a quarter of millionaire households in the U.S. — 94,500 of them — pay a smaller share of their income in federal taxes than do 10 million families with moderate incomes. President Obama has pushed to raise taxes on the wealthy to ensure that they are taxed at the same rate as the middle class.
Obama called his proposal the Buffett Rule after billionaire Warren Buffett famously complained that he pays a lower tax rate than other people in his office.
The report found that when all federal taxes are taken into account, households that earned more than $1 million in 2006 paid as little as 24 percent to the IRS. Families making less than $100,000 a year faced a tax rate exceeding 26.5 percent.
