September 11, 2008
Income and taxes in North Carolina
We hear a lot about who pays taxes at the national level but perhaps not as much at the state and local levels. However, a new analysis just became available that gives an insight into tax payments at the state level. What does it reveal? Listen
Dr. Mike Walden, North Carolina Cooperative Extension economist in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at N.C. State University, responds:
"This is from the very prestigious think tank called the Tax Foundation. What they were able to do is look at each state, and first of all, look at the percentage of total income earned by taxpayers in various income categories and then look a the percentage of federal income taxes - only federal income taxes - paid by these same taxpayers. And I think the numbers are very interesting. For North Carolina in 2006, first of all, they showed that the top 1 percent of income earners in the state earned 17 percent of all income. The top 5 percent earned 32 percent of all income. The bottom 50 percent earned 11 percent of all income. Now these numbers are actually somewhat lower than for the nation, meaning that there appears to be a higher percentage of North Carolinians who are in the middle income category. Now in terms of federal taxes - federal income taxes paid - the top 1 percent of income earners in North Carolina paid 35 percent of all federal income taxes, the bottom 50 percent paid 3 percent."
Posted by Dave at September 11, 2008 08:00 AM