How much of the federal income tax does each income group pay?

In tax year 2023, the 1% of tax returns with the highest incomes paid 38.4% of all federal income tax, the next 9% paid 32.1%, the next 40% paid 26.2% and the bottom 50% paid 3.3%. In tax year 2023, the top 1% reported 20.6% of all income and the bottom 50% reported 12.3%. Groups are tax returns ranked by adjusted gross income, leaving out returns of people claimed as someone's dependent; in 2023 the top 1% started at $675,602 of income and the top half at $53,801. Income tax here is what returns owed after credits, never below zero; refundable credits paid out as refunds and payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare aren't counted. IRS figures are estimates from a sample of returns and come out about two years after the tax year.

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Key facts

Measure: Share of all federal income tax paid, %. Written from the data below.

  • Top 1% has the highest figure, 38.4%.
  • Bottom 50% has the lowest figure, 3.3%.
  • The highest is 12 times the lowest.

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Chartly. “How much of the federal income tax does each income group pay?” Chart. Data: IRS Statistics of Income, Table 4.1 (individual returns by income percentile), https://www.irs.gov/statistics/soi-tax-stats-individual-statistical-tables-by-tax-rate-and-income-percentile (data as of December 31, 2023). https://chart.ly/charts/income-tax-share-by-income-group (accessed November 6, 2026).

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The file has the numbers in this table, with the source, license and date. Please credit the source and Chartly. Developers can also get them as JSON (how).

Tax returns, by income Share of all federal income tax paid, %
Top 1% 38.4
Next 9% 32.14
Next 40% 26.2
Bottom 50% 3.26

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