Who Gets the Bush Income Tax Cut?
According to data from the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center Microsimulation Model, the dollar amount of the Bush income tax cut appears to be roughly proportional, by income category, to the amount of income taxes paid by each category, with the top income categories getting, proportionately, somewhat less of the tax cut than the proportion of total U.S. income taxes that they pay. The top 1% of all taxpayers earned 18% of the total income earned by all taxpayers, and paid 37% of the total taxes paid by all taxpayers. Urban-Brookings estimated that the top 1% will have tax savings that will amount to about 34% of the entire taxes paid by all taxpayers. (If the tax cut were completely proportionate, the top 1% would receive a proportion of the total tax cut that equaled the proportion of income taxes that they paid: 37%. They are expected to get a little less in tax savings: 34% of the tax cut, not 37%.) The middle 20% income category (individuals who earn $27,000 to $44,000) paid 4.6%
