To the Readers' Forum:
I hesitate to comment on the letter "To the Readers Forum", May 9, entitled "Tax on Wealthy Data is Misleading", but the author's interpretation of that data is also incorrect.
He seems to believe that the top 1 percent possess 99 percent of the national wealth and make 99 percent of the income and therefore should pay 99 percent of the federal income taxes.
To paraphrase Herman Caine, this would be the 99-99-99 tax program.
The letter writer seems to think that because a group of taxpayers are in the top 1 percent that means they make 99 percent of the income. That obviously is not true. According to the Federal Individual Income Tax Database for 2010, the total adjusted gross income for the top 1 percent of income earners is about 20 percent of total personal income. This is because although they are top earners, there is so few of them that the total income of the 99 percent is far higher.
To be exact the 99 percent make the remaining 80 percent of the income.
Finally, the 1 percent who make 20 percent of the total personal income pay about 38 percent of the total personal income taxes.
James W. Faulk
Lakewood