Have you ever wondered just what the numbers are regarding the money earned and taxes paid in the U.S.?

Who pays the biggest slice of U.S. taxes?

That is, what number of people earn the highest percentage of the total population’s earnings, now big a slice of the overall pie that is, and what percentage of overall taxes do they pay?

Or conversely, how much in taxes get paid by the bottom earners?

If you have wondered that, you are in luck today. There’s an informative article in Fortune that gives you those details and more. Titled “Top 3% of Taxpayers Paid Majority of Income Tax in 2016“, it lays out who paid what in terms of share of taxes.

As you are probably aware, we have what is called a progressive tax rate in this country, that is, the percentage of tax levied on a taxpayer rises with his or her income.

Rates for millionaires and billionaires used to be much, much higher then (during the 40’s, 50’s 60’s and 70’s) than the rates are now, and that drop started happening during the 80’s and the Reagan administration, when those rates for the wealthy started falling. The tax cuts pushed through by the Trump administration last year have reduced those rates on the wealthy even further, but, the wealthy still pay the majority of the overall personal income taxes collected by the IRS.

Interesting article – check it out!