Reply #126: Your first source is only wages, but your second number is tax on all [View All]

[AP]

sources of income -- cap gains, dividends, interest income, trust income, etc.

At least that's how I read these tables.

The richer you are, the less of your annual income comes from wages. Basically, you just have actors, athletes, musicians, doctors and lawyers who are high wage earners. The rest get their money from unearned sources (seeling stocks, dividends, inheritance, etc, none of which are covered in your first stat).

I've seen the the stats for both annual income (from all sources) and total assets, and in both cases the people who are in the top X% of income earners an the top X% of asset owners pay less than X% of the total tax burden.