Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Understanding Fair Share

There seems to be a lot of confusion as to what the term Fair Share means. Many people are under the mistaken impression that it is some fixed number that seems reasonable. That would be wrong. The definition of Fair Share is a percentage of the Federal income tax that is some amount higher than what is being paid today. Thus the following.

Percentage of Federal Income Tax Paid by Top 1% Earners

1979    19%  [Not Fair Share]
1989    23%  [Not Fair Share]
1999    37%  [Not Fair Share]
2009    42%  [Not Fair Share]

So for 2013, Fair Share might be, say, 45%. By 2019 it will be 50% . And so on. It's important to understand this definition. Otherwise we will continue to have fruitless arguments over what a Fair Share really is.

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