over half of tax returns have incomes less than 30K (adjusted gross)

Of 130 million tax returns filed (counting both joint and single filers), over half (68 million) had adjusted gross income less than 30K.


Some excerpts:


They received 130 million returns. The U.S. has a population of around 290 million. There were 26,686,687 taxpayers with adjusted gross incomes of between $50,000 and $100,000. ... 2,419,215 taxpayers who the IRS says make $200,000 or more in adjusted gross income a year.
....

The largest group, 38,133,248, reported adjusted gross income of under $15,000. The next largest group of taxpayers, 29,964,349, made between $15,000 and $30,000. That group of taxpayers making between $50,000 and $100,000 is the next largest in size, 26,686,687. There were 24,556,060 in the between $30,000 and $50,000 group....There were 8,441,857 making between $100,000 and $200,000 a year.

See here:

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000039&sid=a1U7Fbtfaklg&refer=columnist_mysak

That's discouraging too, alot of these returns are from two parents working. If people really had the information on how little most people make, I think we'd see an instant shift in politics in this country.

This includes joint returns.

I wonder what the median might be.

Just another scorecard entry in the race to the bottom.

NO health insurance coverage... as it is the working poor who are most affected by the current health costs as they typically work in industries that avoid providing health care coverage.

Of course Adjusted gross is not the same as gross. But it is fairly close.

THe IRS does have a income statistics website. THey sell most of the info, however. How convenient!

If we had some ratio of joint to single filings, we could estimate the median, maybe...

I would be very interested to see a poll of what the American public thinks with respect to the relative sizes of the income blocks....

can make a vast difference between gross and agi. but for most wage-earners, there is little, if any difference.

If over 50 percent of the population pulls in less than $30 thousand a year, why does everyone always speak to the middle class instead of the working poor?

It's what people call themselves as they are grasping for every "floatation device"...as they see the yachts passing them in the water..

To "drown" is a distinct possibility, to swim fast enough to catch a yacht, is an impossibility...but if they can catch a piece of driftwood, they can stay afloat for a while longer..

That's middle class..


Middle class "used' to be...

Dad working 40 hrs a week with benefits and pension
Mom stayed home to raise the kids (but could work parttime if she could find a job close to home)..
Families could afford vacations...new cars every few years..
They could afford to send kids to college..

This was all on ONE INCOME...

Back then People only baught 1 car and a 1000-1200 square foot house.

Now people buy 2-3 cars and 1800-2000 square foot houses. They buy computers now. Now people pay $25-30 a month on cable and $15-20 on internet.

I agree with the health insurance part though. Health insuranc eand the drug industry needs some major reform.

I live in the upper parts of the middle class spectrum though. I'm 16 and can't speak for other people. I can only compare my grandparents housees with my house.

that in that day and age, the returning vets and their young families were probably the FIRST in that family to buy a home.. Prior to that, homes were big, because evryone lived there..aunts, grandparents, etc.. In rural communities, families lived together.. WWII vets started the trend of moving away with their young families..Naturally they could not afford a large house, and if ALL the homes in a development were small, no one felt the "envy and greed" that we all see daily now.. There was very little presence of TV back then. People measured their "worth" by that of their neighbors and coworkers..

In mordern times, everyone aspires to be Trump or Gates.. Back then there was very little credit extended to "regular folks", so the McMansion would have never existed then..

Credit cards did not enter the middle class until the 70's.

I am not even talking about the cost of new larger homes. There are older people who own homes that they bought 40-50 years ago that are now worth 75-100 times more than what they paid for them. Inflation and wages haven't increased that much.

are going for somewhere in the upper 300k's for a very modest house. The asking prices are over 400k. 300k will buy you a tiny starter house with two bedrooms. And my area is not in any way, shape or form an upscale community. In fact, just a few years ago, Newsday referred to it as "decidedly blue collar" when doing a profile in their real estate section. In this area, housing costs have not only gone up, they've gone crazy.

They live in Concord Ca..and before they bought, they were paying almost 2K a month for a 2 br house rent..

After they bought the house, they had to have foundation work done,replace the garage doors, had to refinish all the wood floors and replace all the windows.. They ended up putting almost 25K more into renovations...

A realtor stopped by a few weeks ago, making cold calls and told them he could get 515K for it... They are not interested:)..

And my adjusted gross income was under $30K

As many of them work under the table jobs, and jobs where under reporting of tips is common (and necessary) in order to make ends meet.