This year’s Index of Dependence on Government presented startling findings about the sharp increase of Americans who rely on the federal government for housing, food, income, student aid or other assistance. (See last week’s chart.)
Another eye-popping number was the percentage of Americans who don’t pay income taxes, which now accounts for nearly half of the U.S. population. Meanwhile, most of that population receives generous federal benefits.
“One of the most worrying trends in the Index is the coinciding growth in the non-taxpaying public,” wrote Heritage authors Bill Beach and Patrick Tyrrell. “The percentage of people who do not pay federal income taxes, and who are not claimed as dependents by someone who does pay them, jumped from 14.8 percent in 1984 to 49.5 percent in 2009.”
7,000 Millionaires Paid No Income Taxes in 2011
That’s way up from 2009, when the count of people with income of $1 million or more for the year who paid no federal income taxes was around 1,500.
Even more interesting is the count of those with income of over $100,000 who paid zero federal income taxes in 2011. Would you believe there were half-a-million such individuals and couples?
For some reason this bothers me more than the total count of old people, children, and low-income Americans who owed no federal income taxes.
I guess Obama has brought our nation from apathy to dependence and is aiming for bondage for us all.
People voted for him because they thought it was time we had a black for president, not because he was competent.
Nearly half of all Americans can’t afford to pay taxes.
@Greg:
This is the single biggest strawman you have ever built. If a millionaire has no income, they pay no income taxes. If their income is from capital gains from investments, they pay capital gains tax, they have already been taxed on the money they invested once. How many time do you want someone to be taxed? Give us a number; 2, 5, 10, eternity?
You have an issue understanding income and wealth. You want to tax their wealth. So, at the end of the year, if a person has $250 million they need to be taxed on that amount, even if they were taxed on that same amount the previous year. That is not the way it works Greg. Thy Shall Not Covet….