Tuesday, April 15, 2003

In case you missed it:

New data also show a continuing shift of tax burdens away from businesses and onto individuals. Last year, corporations paid 10.5 percent of all the taxes collected by the Internal Revenue Service, down from 16.4 percent in 1973.

Since 1973, corporate income taxes have risen 75 percent as fast as corporate profits. By contrast, individuals' income taxes rose 21 percent faster than adjusted gross incomes. Social Security taxes, which apply to the first $87,000 of pay, together with Medicare taxes, grew 82 percent faster than incomes....

After paying their federal income taxes, Americans had 3 fewer cents of each dollar to spend in 2000, the latest year for which detailed information is available, than they had in 1973. The overall individual income tax rate in 2000 was 18 cents on the dollar, up from 15 cents in 1973, the Syracuse report showed.

Add Social Security and Medicare taxes and the average effective tax rate was nearly 28 cents on each dollar of income in 2000, up from slightly more than 21 cents in 1973.

The opposite was true for corporations. Their effective income tax rates fell to 25.8 percent in 1999, from 32.4 percent in 1973, a decline of nearly 7 cents on the dollar.

That decline was concentrated among the largest corporations. Corporate profits are officially taxed at 35 cents on the dollar, but the 10,000 largest companies actually pay only about 20 cents of tax on each dollar of profit.


--New York Times, 4/14/03

No comments: