Americans' tax burden near historic low
BAY AREA NEWS GROUP
Posted: 04/16/2009 06:00:19 AM PDT
Updated: 04/16/2009 07:08:14 AM PDT

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Americans' tax burden near historic low

WASHINGTON — As thousands of anti-tax protesters rallied across the nation Wednesday and the president promised tax cuts for most, new data showed that the federal income tax burden is already hovering near its lowest level in three decades for all but the wealthiest Americans.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that the average family forked over barely 9 percent of its earnings to the IRS in 2006, the most recent year for which information is available. The effective tax rate hit its all-time low in 2003 and has crept up only slightly since.

Middle-class families — to whom President Obama has delivered even more tax relief since he took office in January — have fared especially well, according to the CBO. The middle fifth of taxpayers, who earned an average of $60,700 per household in 2006, paid just 3 percent in federal income tax that year, down from a high of 8.3 percent in 1981.

With federal income taxes so low for so many families, a majority of those surveyed by Gallup last week said the amount of federal income taxes they pay is either "too low" or "about right," compared with 46 percent who said their tax bills are "too high" — one of the most positive assessments of the federal tax burden since Gallup began asking the question in 1956.

Still, thousands of protesters marked the day federal income taxes were
due by attending hundreds of "tea parties" from Florida to Hawaii, organizers said. The rallies were promoted by FreedomWorks, a conservative nonprofit group led by Dick Armey, a lobbyist and Texas Republican who once served as House majority leader.

In a pre-rally telephone interview from Atlanta, where he was preparing to speak on the steps of the statehouse, Armey conceded that "the federal tax rate right now is at a good level." But, he said, "there are very few people who believe Obama will be content to leave it at that."

— Washington Post

http://www.contracostatimes.com/localnews/ci_12153305