Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney was caught on tape explaining to a group of prospective donors that 47 percent of Americans âpay no income taxâ and generally fail to contribute their fair share. In identifying these presumed slackers who would never vote for him, Romney betrayed his own myopia about how the tax system works. Hereâs what Romney doesnât talk about when he talks about taxes. 1. All Americans Pay Taxes If you look at the tax system as a whole, the share of taxes paid by Americans in each income group is similar to their share of total income. While Romney is about right that 47 percent of Americans do not specifically pay the federal income tax (according to Tax Policy Center Data), this statement is extremely misleading because it disappears the more than half of this same group that pays payroll taxes. And, every American pays state and local taxes â income, sales, property, etc. In fact, the bottom 20 percent of taxpayers pays substantially more in state and local taxes as a percentage of their income than any other income group. Are there people out there who donât pay any taxes? When we went looking, we couldnât find any, so we had to make one up. 2. Our Federal Tax System Rewards Work and Combats Poverty, and thatâs Good While every American pays some taxes, it is the case that about 18 percent of Americans pay neither payroll nor federal income taxes. Who are these alleged freeloaders? About 60 percent of them are elderly, meaning that theyâre unable to work and are largely living on limited retirement income. 3. Also Paying No Federal Income Tax Are High Wealth Individuals and Highly Profitable Corporations Low income families who pay nothing in federal income taxes are using provisions that were written into the tax code by Congress, just like wealthy corporations and individuals (including Romney himself) do to bring down their tax bills.On the corporate side, Citizens for Tax Justice found that from 2008-2011, 30 Fortune 500 companies, including the likes of General Electric and Verizon, made $205 billion in profits, yet their overall tax bill was actually negative. The corporate tax system has become so full of loopholes and tax breaks (yes, written by Congress) that what even the most profitable companies actually pay on average is roughly half the statutory corporate tax rate. As far as the wealthiest Americans, a recent IRS study found that in 2009 a shocking 35,000 Americans making over $200,000 paid not a dime in federal income tax. Similarly, many of the countryâs wealthiest Americans, like billionaire investor Warren Buffet, pay lower tax rates than middle class Americans, largely due to the tax break on capital gains income and a plethora of other tax loopholes. http://www.ctj.org/taxjusticedigest/archive/2012/09/three_things_romney_forget_to.php