These are federal taxes only (does not include state & local). This info comes from a reputable and corrected public tax record. I am not a big Bush supporter but am passionate about the amount of taxes we as Americans pay. Its important to know the record and to make judgements on the future of our tax burden and system.
There has been a recent email circulating which compares federal taxes paid under the Bush administration vs the Bill Clinton administration.
While the basic message of the comparison is correct (federal income taxes have indeed fallen under George Bush for all groups at all points on the income spectrum), the chart created by the author of this comparison contains some mathematical errors making the lower taxes under Bush more impressive. However, even in the corrected comparisons, taxes for all are still lower under Bush. This is important because the facts have been distorted by the media. Bush has proportionally cut tax rates for the wealthy (over $200,000/yr who still pay a greater % of income to taxes) but everyone has paid lower taxes under Bush compared to Bill Clinton.
The table below presents the correct amount of tax paid by each of the hypothetical taxpayers in the comparison. Note that this comparison does not take into account the Alternative Minimum Tax, and the taxpayers in these examples take the standard deduction and do not have children.
Taxpayer Tax under Clinton, 1999 tax law / Tax under Bush, 2008 tax law
Single, income of 30,000 $3,157.50 / $2,756.25
Single, income of 50,000 $7,262.50 /$6,606.25
Married, income of $50,000 $5,085.00 / $4,012.50
Single, income of $75,000 $14,262.50 /$12,856.25
Married, income of $75,000 $9,426.50 /$7,762.50
Single, income of $125,000* $29,378.50 / $26,472.25
Married, income of $125,000* $23,426.50 /$19,462.50
