Every State Taxes Its 1 Percent At A Lower Rate Than Low-Income Households

[ProSense]

Every State Taxes Its 1 Percent At A Lower Rate Than Low-Income Households

By Pat Garofalo

As ThinkProgress has noted, the “47 percent” that Mitt Romney derided for paying no federal income tax, and thus taking no “personal responsibility and care for their lives,” actually pay a slew of other taxes at rates higher than Romney himself pays. The lion’s share of the tax breaks handed out by the U.S. don’t go to low-income households or the middle class, but to the rich.

And according to a new report from the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy, things are even worse at the state and local level level. In fact, all 50 states impose higher tax rates on low-income households than their richest 1 percent, when state and local taxes are taken into account:

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Some of the worst offenders are Florida, where the top 1 percent pays a 2.1 percent tax rate while the bottom 20 percent of households pay 13.5 percent; Illinois, 4.1 percent and 13 percent, respectively; Nevada, 1.6 percent and 8.9 percent, respectively; Texas, 3 percent and 12.2 percent, respectively; and South Dakota, 1.9 percent and 11 percent, respectively. Washington state though, is the worst, where the richest 1 percent pay a 2.6 percent tax rate while the poorest 20 percent pay a whopping 17 percent in taxes.

In the entire U.S., only the District of Columbia charges the richest 1 percent a higher tax rate than the poorest 20 percent, according to the report.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/09/21/887581/state-taxes-1-percent-low/

[ProSense]

1. Kick! n/t

[HiPointDem]

2. kr. little-acknowledged but well-documented, long-standing truth.

[tledford]

3. Including the states that don't have an income tax at all? eom

[ProSense]

4. Here's the

link to the document. It's very detailed.

http://www.itep.org/pdf/poverty2012report.pdf