Tax or Spending Problem? Looking for data!

[The Midnight Ride]

A while ago there was an analysis done that showed if we were to take every penny of income earned after $200,000 that it would fund the government for less than a half year (don't quote me exactly - but it was close). Does anyone know what I am talking about? I am having a difficult time finding it.

What I would love to have available for argument purposes would be the "break-even point." In other words, how much additional income confiscation would we have to do in order to balance the budget through taxes? Would individuals only be "allowed" to keep $150,000 of their production with any amount above going to the government? $75,000? Less?

Any help would be great!

[gerryb]

Wikipedia is actually a good source;

look up the current deficit
look up current tax rate
look up payroll statistics

[Zippyjuan]

Just as a rough guide, the total collected in income taxes in 2009 collected $1.2 trillion in income taxes (there were other tax revenue sources as well) and the deficit was about $1.3 trillion so you would basically have to double the amount collected in taxes if you wanted to balance the budget without changing current spending levels and making up the shortfall only via the income tax. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_United_States_federal_budget

According to The Tax Foundation, the top five percent of income tax filers had about one third (31.7%) of all adjusted gross income for the entire country. http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250.html

[Zippyjuan]

According to The Tax Foundation, the top five percent of income tax filers had about one third (31.7%) of all adjusted gross income for the entire country. They also report that the total adjusted gross income for that group was $2.48 trillion and they contributed $508 billion in total taxes at a median (average not marginal) tax rate of 20%. http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250.html
Theoretically, you could raise the median taxes on that group to say 60% and balance the budget and leave the tax rate on the remaining 95% of the population as it is.

According to Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States the top 5% earned at least $180,000 a year.

[Acala]

Theoretically, you could raise the median taxes on that group to say 60% and balance the budget.

Once.