The Richest 400 Make Big Bucks but Give Less in Taxes

by Laura Malesich (RSS feed)
Feb 1st 2009 at 3:02PM

My colleague, Jared, highlighted Forbes' Richest 400 this past September including billionaires Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Michael Bloomberg. Now, Forbes has released interesting information about this elite group's tax responsibilities. It seems even though the top 400 make the most money they are not paying the highest percentage of taxes. The following numbers are based on the IRS' 2006 figures and the IRS' ranking of the top 400 (although there is a lot of overlap between the Forbes' 400 and the IRS' 400):

The Top 400 only paid an average of 17% of federal income tax
17% is the lowest tax bite in the fifteen-year period of this group's IRS statistics
In contrast, the top 5% pay an average of 21% of federal income tax and the top 1% pay an average of 23%!

You can read more of the financial details here but that synopsis just goes to show...its good to be at the top.

Tags: forbes, richest 400, richest 400 list, Richest400, Richest400List, taxes, wealth

Filed under: Wealth

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

matt Feb 1st 2009 10:13PM

regardless of their effective tax rate they (and the rest of the top 10%) are shouldering an absurd portion of the total tax burden---70.79% to be exact. absolutely disgusting...keep whining "middle" class.

Arbitrageur Feb 2nd 2009 1:46PM

Matt is absolutely correct.
Incidentally, the notion that the wealthy should pay a higher tax rate is equally absurd since they are the least likely to use all of the government's services, except for national defense, that those tax dollars pay for (welfare, social security, public schools, etc) compared to the middle and lower class.

Diana Feb 4th 2009 10:02PM

Hi,
You'll probably hit your goal for comments on this subject.
Does anybody think for a second that the top 400 richest people are going to do something stupid and cheat on taxes. The IRS allows a lot of deductions and those top 400 people are allowed to take as many as they can.
The middle and lower class have the same rights but generally hurry to file without scheduling so they can get the least amount of refund possible instead of getting the most by scheduling.
Great comments Matt!

Lou Mains Feb 8th 2009 10:47AM

3 idiotic comments above.

The gap is widening between the very rich and the remainder of us. CEO etc. compensation is absurdly high and growing in a totally greedy and undeserved fashion. It is leading the rest of us who still are working to shoulder the bulk of the costs. This is unfair to regular people.

I spose the goal of these greedy jerks is to create serfs and masters??