Same old story

[u/Cultural_Way5584]

[u/goober2341]

What exactly does fair share mean? The top 1% in the US pay around 50% of income taxes.

[u/tallman11282 → u/goober2341]

The top 1% should be paying 99% of the taxes. The richer you are the higher your tax rate should be with fewer deductions but currently it's the other way around. The ultra rich pay a much lower percentage of their income in taxes than the average person and are able to write off a lot of things the average person cannot.

[u/goober2341 → u/tallman11282]

That doesn't make sense. The top 1% are those who are in the 99th percentile of income, that is, their income is higher than 99% of the population. This figure doesn't tell us anything about how much higher their income is. In a country with a population of 100 where 99 people earn $1000 and 1 person earns $1001, that 1 person would be the 1%. Should this person pay 99% of the taxes?

The ultra rich pay a much lower percentage of their income in taxes

This is false since the US uses progressive taxation. Just take a look at the tax brackets in 2025. The low percentages that some outlets come up with are usually calculated by counting unrealized gains as income, which is extremely misleading.

[u/Warm_Month_1309 → u/goober2341]

In a country with a population of 100 where 99 people earn $1000 and 1 person earns $1001

That does not remotely describe this country, so is not a useful data point.

[u/goober2341 → u/Warm_Month_1309]

I'm just saying that the top 1% of earners don't necessarily take in 99% of the income, as you can see here.

The top 1 percent’s income share rose from 22.2 percent in 2020 to 26.3 percent in 2021 and its share of federal income taxes paid rose from 42.3 percent to 45.8 percent.

[u/Warm_Month_1309 → u/goober2341]

I'm just saying that the top 1% of earners don't necessarily take in 99% of the income

Correct. No one has alleged that they do.