The Average Income Tax by Wealth Bracket in America

See this visualization first on the Voronoi app.

The Average Income Tax by Wealth Bracket in America

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Key Takeaways

• On average, U.S. taxpayers paid $13,890 in federal income tax in 2022, based on the most recent available data.
• Across all Americans, the average income tax rate stood at 14.5%.
• While the top 1% of earners paid nearly $562,000 on average in taxes, the bottom 50% paid an average of $822.

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U.S. adults paid $2.1 trillion in individual income taxes in 2022 according to the latest available data from the IRS.

Overall, the top 1% of earners paid $864 billion in income tax, the highest share across wealth brackets. The average income tax paid across this group was nearly $562,000. That year, about 1.5 million people fell into this echelon, paying an average income tax rate of 26.1%.

This graphic shows the average federal income tax by wealth bracket in America, based on data from the IRS via the Tax Foundation.

How Much Do Americans Pay in Tax?

Below, we show how tax payments vary across different tiers of wealth in 2022.

Notably, the data excludes payroll taxes, which account for a larger share of the bottom 50%’s tax burden relative to their income compared to higher wealth brackets.

As we can see, the American tax system was progressive, meaning that higher incomes were subject to higher tax rates.

For those in the top 5% of earners, the average tax rate stood at 23.1%, while for U.S. adults earning over $178,611, representing the top 10%, the tax rate declined to 21.1% on average. As a whole, the average rate for all Americans was 14.5% across 153.8 million tax filings.

For the bottom half of American earners, those making $50,339 or less, tax payments averaged $822. This amounted to a 3.7% tax rate, on average, and totaled 3% of federal individual tax earnings for the year.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

To learn more about this topic from a global perspective, check out this graphic on the 25 countries with no income taxes.

The post The Average Income Tax by Wealth Bracket in America appeared first on Visual Capitalist.