Quote:
Originally Posted by Ninkobei
This information is off the 2009 numbers. But Romney got his numbers from the same source: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-me...households-pa/
His statistics come from a document produced by the Joint Committee on Taxation, a respected bipartisan committee of Congress. The JCT found that for tax year 2009, roughly 22 percent of "tax units" (not exactly "households," but we’ll give him a pass on the terminology) ended up without any tax liability. Another 30 percent got money back from the government, through mechanisms such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, a longstanding policy that encourages low-income Americans to work by refunding money through the tax code. By contrast, JCT found just 49 percent of Americans owed anything to the government.
Because high earners have so much income liability, the breaks they get still don’t lower their taxes to zero. By contrast, popular lower- and middle-income breaks such as child credits and mortgage interest deductions do get a big share of the population off the hook.
PS. Soldiers deployed to combat zones are part of the 47% who don't pay federal income tax. |
When I talk about doubting the "47%," I'm talking about people who "live off the government dole," not people who "pay no federal income tax." I do think there is a marked difference between the two, particularly if we were to replace "no federal income tax" with "very little federal income tax," which is probably about the same thing in the big picture.