text: how much income tax is paid annually by youth (people under 18) in the usa?   with regard to federal income tax, anyway, very, very little.  the top 5% of wage earners pay 54.36% of all federal income tax.  the top 50% pay 96.54% of all federal income tax. (the median income being roughly $44,000, depending how you calculate).  there are rougly 300 million americans, so there are 150 million (which, i'm sorry, does include children), paying a total of $25.9 million in taxes.  there are, if it helps, approximately 12 million people between the ages of 15 and 17.  i'm sorry my numbers are dead-on precise, but i don't have detailed breakdowns at hand.