CNN:-
>Americans with higher incomes would benefit more from a cut in the tax on
>dividend income because they invest more in stocks and bonds.
>
>Figures from the Internal Revenue Service illustrate that point.
>About 15 million tax returns with an adjusted gross income of less than
>$50,000 reported dividend income last year, totaling $26.9 billion,
>according to IRS figures.
>About 10 million returns for earnings between $50,000 and $100,000
>reported $27.1 billion in dividend income
>The 4.8 million returns with adjusted gross incomes between $100,000 and
>$200,000 reported dividends totaling $23.8 billion, and
> the 200,000 filers with more than $1 million in adjusted gross income
> reported dividends totaling $25.4 billion, the IRS says.
>Fleischer said tax cuts should go to people who pay the bulk of the taxes.
>
>"Very often, critics of tax relief described everybody as rich in an
>effort to stop tax relief," he said. "I think that's been an old tactic by
>people who wanted to raise taxes on the American people in the first place."
NYT [as quoted by Ian]
>Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman, said today that there were 35
>million people who received dividend income, including 10 million
>elderly people.
>But some liberal analysts said an investor class, at least as a mass
>phenomenon, was a political marketing myth. The Center on Budget and
>Policy Priorities, a liberal research group, cited an analysis of
>Federal Reserve data today showing that 85 percent of the value of
>stocks and bonds was held by the top 10 percent of the income spectrum
>in 1998, the latest year for which comprehensive data is available.
>Citing I.R.S. data from 2000, the group said 22 percent of taxpayers
>with incomes under $100,000 reported any dividend income, while 72
>percent of filers between $100,000 and $1 million and nearly all filers
>above $1 million reported dividend income.