1、CRS INSIGHT Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress INSIGHTINSIGHTi i Income Shares, Tax Shares, and Average Tax Rates Across the Income Distribution December 7, 2020 The distribution of income and tax burdens often informs tax policy debates. The U.S. income tax system is generally progress
2、ive. In a progressive tax system, those with higher incomes pay more, as a percentage of their income, in taxes. As a result, average tax rates tend to be higher for higher-income taxpayers. Future changes to the income tax system might seek to increase or decrease the progressivity of the tax syste
3、m, or to leave the distribution of the tax burden unchanged. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is one source for data on the income and tax distribution. IRS data on the income and tax shares for 2018 were recently released. Changes to the tax code that were part of the 2017 tax revision (P.L. 115-
4、97), commonly referred to as the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” (TCJA), were generally effective for the 2018 tax year. Thus, these 2018 data provide information on how the TCJA initially affected the distribution of the tax burden and average tax rates. This Insight uses IRS data on income and tax shares
