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A lesser burden
By DAVE MICHAELS
Washington correspondent dmichaels@dallasnews.com
With the Bush tax cuts set to expire this year, a divided Congress is grappling with the future of tax rates. Democrats and Republicans are divided over raising taxes on high earners, but the fight obscures the fact that the U.S. tax burden has steadily decreased over the past 30 years. Compared with other countries, the U.S. is a low-tax nation, which makes it all the more difficult to compromise on how much anyone should pay.
2022: 21.4%*
2022: 18.6%*
10
Top 1 percent
35 30 25 20 15 10 5
Denmark Sweden
47.6% 45.5% 43.5% 42.9% 42.9% 42.9% 42.5% 42.0% 38.7% 37.9% 37.5% 37.1% 36.1% 35.2% 34.9% 34.2% 34.2% 33.8% 32.4% 32.3% 31.7% 31.5% 31.3% 31.0% 30.9% 28.3% 28.1% 27.6% 27.6% 25.7% 25.6% 25.1% 24.8% 19.6% 18.8%
28.9%
Belgium Italy Norway France Finland Austria Netherlands Hungary Slovenia Luxembourg Germany Iceland United Kingdom Czech Republic Estonia Average Israel Spain Poland New Zealand Portugal Canada Greece Slovak Republic Switzerland Ireland Japan Turkey Australia Korea United States Chile Mexico
11.1%
1%
0 80 85 90 95 00 05 09
Miscellaneous: $9.3
Miscellaneous: $95.9 Customs duties: $25.3 Social insurance: $864.8 Excise: $66.9
SOURCES: Congressional Budget Office; Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development