Using Internal Revenue Service Anderson County statistics for the 2016 tax year, I determined both market and net income in Anderson County using their income brackets as my guide. Bottom line…

The gross income figures show that folks who make more than $100,000 in adjusted gross income consist of 13.6% of all tax returns, yet they make 45% of all income in Anderson County. However…

The taxable income numbers of the same folks are truly remarkable. Using the same idea, I used those folks making more than $100,000 in taxable income. They are 18% of all returns (the higher percentage comes from the very lowest income earners not paying tax), yet they make 54.6% of all taxable income in Anderson County. Thus, the top 20% of income earners make over half of all taxable income in the county. Stepping down a little to those making more than $75,000 of taxable income, they are 29.4% of all income earners in Anderson County, but make 69.5% of all the taxable income in the county.

Just to give some numbers with the percentages, at the very top, 830 households make $259,668,000 out of a total taxable income in Anderson County ($1,221,228,000). These are folks who make $200,000 and more in taxable income.

An argument is made that wealthier folks pay more tax than everyone else and that is true. We are back to using per capita numbers to compare apples to apples. The wealthiest make a taxable income (per capita) of $312, 853. The top middle class (defined here as $50,000 to $75,000) have a per capita taxable income of $40,182. Note- the taxable income is usually much less than adjusted gross income due to the many tax credits taken “off the top”.

The total tax paid, per capita, from these two categories gives us a general idea of what percentage of their taxable income goes to paying the actual tax. The wealthiest pay a per capita of $18,240 which is 5.8% of their per capita taxable income. The top middle class pays a per capita tax of $2,247 which is 5.5% of their income.

The income category with the most folks is $25,000 to $50,000. Their per capita total taxable income is $18,986. They pay a per capita tax of $1,348. That comes to 7% of their taxable income going to pay their income tax. Wow.

Finally, remember payroll taxes are paid by all at a flat rate. By definition, the poorer income levels will pay a higher percentage of their income to the payroll tax.

This tax inequality has only become worse under Trump’s tax law. Next time will be some details on why.