WASHINGTON - Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-MI) today issued the following statement after the release of a Congressional Research Service analysis that shows that 94,500 millionaires pay a lower effective tax rate than millions of families earning less than $100,000. The full analysis is linked here.
LEVIN: “Republicans refuse to ask the very wealthiest to contribute toward deficit reduction even in the face of this new report, which shows millions of middle class families are paying a higher tax rate than millionaires. This makes plain that there are tens of thousands like Warren Buffett out there, paying a lower tax rate than the middle class families whose incomes have stalled over the last three decades."
KEY POINTS FROM ANALYSIS:
* Comparing millionaires with moderate-income taxpayers (with AGI less than $100,000), roughly one-quarter of all millionaires (about 94,500 taxpayers) face a tax rate that is lower than the tax rate faced by 10.4 million moderate-income taxpayers.
* The current U.S. tax system violates the Buffett rule in that a large proportion of millionaires pay a smaller percentage of their income in taxes than a significant proportion of moderate-income taxpayer.
* Research suggests that (the Buffett rule is) unlikely to affect many small businesses or to deter saving and investment.
