White House analysis shows how wealthy Americans pay less in taxes than others

The White House published a new economic analysis on Thursday which showed how wealthy Americans pay far less in taxes than others - an effort to bolster President Joe Biden's push to increase taxes on the rich to fund his economic agenda.

I'm sick and tired of super-important corporations not paying their fair share in taxes, wrote Biden on Twitter on Wednesday. He is pushing a $3.5 trillion bill that would expand the federal efforts to fight climate change, reduce the cost of child care and decrease poverty by forcing the rich and corporations to pay more taxes.

The White House analysis from two economists suggests that the wealthiest 400 households in the country — those with net worth between $2.1 billion and $160 billion – pay an effective federal income tax rate of just over 8 percent per year on average.

It shows that from 2010 to 2018, those top 400 households, when including the rising value of their wealth, earned a combined $1.8 trillion and paid an estimated $149 billion in federal income tax.

The White House's analysis of what the rich pay in this country is much lower than what others have found.

Its tax rate calculation uses data on income from high earners, wealth and taxes paid by the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Reserve's survey of consumer finance.

The analysis was first reported by the New York Times.