New income tax burden statistics from IRS shed some light on whether the rich are being taxed too little or too much.

• Top 1% of filers paid 36.7% of all federal income taxes in 2009, the most recent year IRS has analyzed. That’s down from 38% the previous year. And this very small slice of taxpayers reported 16.9% of total adjusted gross income, also down from a 20% share in 2008. To qualify for the top 1% of earners in 2009, you needed an adjusted gross income of at least $343,927. The average tax rate paid by the top 1% of filers rose to 24.0% of their AGI, the highest rate since 2003.
• The highest 5% paid 58.7% of total income tax and accounted for 31.7% of all adjusted gross income. They each had AGIs of at least $154,643.
• The top 10% of filers, those with AGIs of $112,124 or more, bore 70.5% of the total tax burden while bringing in slightly more than 43% of the total adjusted gross income.
• The bottom 50% of all filers paid just 2.25% of the total income tax bill.

(Source: Kiplinger Tax Letter Vol. 86, No 21, Oct 14, 2011)