<story><title>The wealthiest 10% of Americans own a record 89% of all U.S. stocks</title><url>https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/18/the-wealthiest-10percent-of-americans-own-a-record-89percent-of-all-us-stocks.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>TameAntelope</author><text>Digging into the report, 43.3% of people didn&amp;#x27;t pay either in 2020 [1], if that helps you out at all.&lt;p&gt;[1] - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.taxpolicycenter.org&amp;#x2F;model-estimates&amp;#x2F;tax-units-zero-or-negative-income-tax-liability-august-2021&amp;#x2F;t21-0161-tax-units-zero&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.taxpolicycenter.org&amp;#x2F;model-estimates&amp;#x2F;tax-units-ze...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>mikeyouse</author><text>Right, but the misleading &amp;quot;Don&amp;#x27;t pay Federal Income Taxes&amp;quot; trope purposefully ignores that they &lt;i&gt;do&lt;/i&gt; pay Federal Payroll Taxes -- which per your chart is another 36% of government revenue.</text></item><item><author>MuffinFlavored</author><text>&amp;gt; Why specify what specific tax it is?&lt;p&gt;Because the majority (50%) of the money spent by the US Federal government is mainly from federal income tax.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.taxpolicycenter.org&amp;#x2F;briefing-book&amp;#x2F;what-are-sources-revenue-federal-government&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.taxpolicycenter.org&amp;#x2F;briefing-book&amp;#x2F;what-are-sourc...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>skinnymuch</author><text>Key word “federal”. Why specify what specific tax it is? Does it not muddy the waters vs talking about taxes overall?&lt;p&gt;I did an anecdotal test with a few people near me. They read this as those people pay no taxes. Most people aren’t thinking about the specifics of state, federal, FICA (SS + Medicare), sales, property, and more.&lt;p&gt;I can’t think of any good faith reason this is done.</text></item><item><author>pwned1</author><text>Related: 61% of Americans paid no federal income taxes in 2020&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cnbc.com&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;08&amp;#x2F;18&amp;#x2F;61percent-of-americans-paid-no-federal-income-taxes-in-2020-tax-policy-center-says.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cnbc.com&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;08&amp;#x2F;18&amp;#x2F;61percent-of-americans-paid-...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>lisper</author><text>&amp;gt;  Why would they be different?&lt;p&gt;It doesn&amp;#x27;t make a lot of sense, but the fact of the matter is that the phrase &amp;quot;income tax&amp;quot; as commonly used does not include payroll taxes.  &amp;quot;Income tax&amp;quot; refers only to the tax on &amp;quot;taxable income&amp;quot;, i.e. your net income after deductions and credits.  Payroll tax, by way of contrast, is taken from the very first dollar you make, so the only way you can avoid paying that is if you are unemployed.  Saying that &amp;quot;61% of Americans do not contribute to the pool of money that is spent by the federal government as a result of their income&amp;quot; is tantamount to saying that 61% of Americans are unemployed, which is plainly not the case.  (BTW, &amp;quot;income&amp;quot; in the sense of &amp;quot;income tax&amp;quot; &lt;i&gt;does&lt;/i&gt; include dividends and capital gains, which are &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt; subject to payroll taxes.  So it is possible to make millions while unemployed and pay no payroll taxes.  That is actually not uncommon.  In fact, it&amp;#x27;s the norm among retired people.)</text></comment>
<story><title>The wealthiest 10% of Americans own a record 89% of all U.S. stocks</title><url>https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/18/the-wealthiest-10percent-of-americans-own-a-record-89percent-of-all-us-stocks.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>TameAntelope</author><text>Digging into the report, 43.3% of people didn&amp;#x27;t pay either in 2020 [1], if that helps you out at all.&lt;p&gt;[1] - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.taxpolicycenter.org&amp;#x2F;model-estimates&amp;#x2F;tax-units-zero-or-negative-income-tax-liability-august-2021&amp;#x2F;t21-0161-tax-units-zero&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.taxpolicycenter.org&amp;#x2F;model-estimates&amp;#x2F;tax-units-ze...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>mikeyouse</author><text>Right, but the misleading &amp;quot;Don&amp;#x27;t pay Federal Income Taxes&amp;quot; trope purposefully ignores that they &lt;i&gt;do&lt;/i&gt; pay Federal Payroll Taxes -- which per your chart is another 36% of government revenue.</text></item><item><author>MuffinFlavored</author><text>&amp;gt; Why specify what specific tax it is?&lt;p&gt;Because the majority (50%) of the money spent by the US Federal government is mainly from federal income tax.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.taxpolicycenter.org&amp;#x2F;briefing-book&amp;#x2F;what-are-sources-revenue-federal-government&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.taxpolicycenter.org&amp;#x2F;briefing-book&amp;#x2F;what-are-sourc...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>skinnymuch</author><text>Key word “federal”. Why specify what specific tax it is? Does it not muddy the waters vs talking about taxes overall?&lt;p&gt;I did an anecdotal test with a few people near me. They read this as those people pay no taxes. Most people aren’t thinking about the specifics of state, federal, FICA (SS + Medicare), sales, property, and more.&lt;p&gt;I can’t think of any good faith reason this is done.</text></item><item><author>pwned1</author><text>Related: 61% of Americans paid no federal income taxes in 2020&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cnbc.com&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;08&amp;#x2F;18&amp;#x2F;61percent-of-americans-paid-no-federal-income-taxes-in-2020-tax-policy-center-says.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cnbc.com&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;08&amp;#x2F;18&amp;#x2F;61percent-of-americans-paid-...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>JamesBarney</author><text>The report says that the % of people(tax units) who didn&amp;#x27;t pay either in 2020 was 20.5%.&lt;p&gt;The 43.3% was the % of tax units that had a net negative income and payroll taxes (thought I doubt this included the employer side of the tax which for economics purposes falls on the worker).  But that was also the Covid year.&lt;p&gt;Most years it&amp;#x27;s 25%-22%, which doesn&amp;#x27;t seem high for the poor, the disabled, and the retired.</text></comment>