They paid Illinois income tax of $164,426.

Most of their income was from book sales.

[And in case anyone is wondering what the "Henry G. Freeman Decd TW" income is, that's the $12,000 annuity paid annually to First Ladies from the trust established under Freeman's Will because he thought the president's salary was so low; see here for details]

Should they pay more than this?  Should anyone who reports this kind of income pay more of it in taxes?  Well, I think so.  What's the argument that they should not?  That they already pay the lions' share of the taxes collected?  Well, how does the person making $40,000 afford to, you know, live and ever expect to retire to a life that doesn't include cat food for dinner if he or she keeps being asked to pay more - more sales tax, more gas tax, more taxes on phone service and electric, more property tax, more state tax?  More, more, more in an economy where salaries have been frozen for many and most of the basics cost more, too.  I would venture to guess that the reverse economic situation for the $40K earner is more devastating than for those  in the Multi-Million Dollar Club.  If you've already sold the one house you scrimped and sacrificed to buy, if you're already taking the bus because you sold your car, if you're already shopping discount and using coupons, if you've already given up your cell phone, your cable and raised your deductibles on whatever kinds of insurance you have - what else can you cut?  And why should your life have to keep getting more and more meager, when what you do to earn the money you report is a lot harder, really, than what some guy at Goldman Sachs does to earn his?  

But we don't reward people for their effort - the guy swinging a hammer and pouring concrete all day doesn't get paid what professional athletes make, even if both are expending similar levels of physical effort - because the athlete makes more money for others and the laborer doesn't.  Just like the fact that good teachers may make it possible for their students to be the next Goldman guru, he or she doesn't get paid what the Goldman guy does because the teacher isn't making money for anyone else.

In this country, unless you can make other people rich, your value is very, very small - and yet, those who make the big bucks whine all the time about paying taxes - people who get the equivalent of lottery winnings every year, who have the ability to secure their futures and the futures of their descendants for generations are whining about paying more tax.

Oh, the humanity!

Buffett cited himself, the third-richest person in the world, as an example. Last year, Buffett said, he was taxed at 17.7 percent on his taxable income of more than $46 million. His receptionist was taxed at about 30 percent.

Buffett said that was despite the fact that he was not trying to avoid paying higher taxes. "I don't have a tax shelter," he said. And he challenged Congress and his audience to see what the people who "clean our offices" are taxed, to loud applause.

They made $5.5 billion, which is 43% of $12.78 billion (revenue).  You also made the mistake of calling this bonus money.  This is salary and bonus money.

So in three months Goldman employees made 10 times the annual amount of the health clinic funding.

Earnings for the Wall Street giant rose 91 percent in the first quarter of 2010, to $3.46 billion or $5.59 a share, up from $1.81 billion or $3.39 a share in the same period last year. Revenues increased 36 percent to $12.78 billion, up from $9.42 billion in the quarter a year ago.

So the correct screed should read like this:

Let's do the math 0.43 X 12.78 billion = $5,495,400,000. FOR ONE QUARTER!!

Should they pay more in taxes?  It's absurd to raise the question without comparison to "more than what?".  Assuming all that money is being paid to people who are rich -- it isn't -- they're probably paying at least 28% tax on it.  Let's do the math: $1,538,712,000 FOR ONE QUARTER!!  State and local taxes may also apply!!

Maybe, just maybe, the rich can afford to pay a few percent of the money the get to help sustain a government that saved their bacon. Just a thought.

Top 5% paid 60.63% of All Fed Income taxes.

Top 1% of the taxpayers paid 40.4% of all federal taxes

The top 0.1% of taxpayers (141,000 people) paid 20% of all federal income taxes.

If your AGI was $160,000 or more you were in the top 5% of all taxpayers

An AGI of over $410,000 puts you in the top 1%

These figures include all tax returns with a positive AGI - they exclude those who filed just to get a check.  Consequently, the above numbers are low.

Average Federal Tax Rate

All taxpayers:   12.68%
Top 1%:      22.45%  (lots of dividend income here)
Top 10%:    18.79%
top 11-25%:   9.43%
Bottom 50%:    2.99%

Data Source:  

Make of the above numbers what you will.  FICA and local taxes are not included.  It's hard to make the case that the rich are not paying a lot of taxes.  That's simply not true.    In fact, it seems a handful of people are paying for everybody else.