57% of U.S. households paid no federal income tax last year as Covid took a toll, study says

According to a new report, more than half of American households paid no federal income tax last year.

The Tax Policy Center estimates that more than half of US households paid no federal income taxes in 2011.

Covid-related job losses, a decline in incomes, and tax credits were largely responsible for the increase.

The Child Tax Credit was expanded. It reduced the income tax liability of more than a hundred million households and temporarily turned many from payers of small amounts of federal income tax to non-payers.

The number of non-payers will decline to 42% in 2022, and then to 38% by 2029 with many of the tax programs ending.

We think it will go back down and remain low relative to historical standards.

The overall tax burden includes federal income taxes. Since most workers pay payroll taxes, the share of American taxpayers who don't pay payroll or federal income taxes was slightly higher than before. State and local taxes are paid by taxpayers.

Conservatives and Republican politicians have seized on the number of non-payers to call for tax reform. All Americans should pay some income tax to have skin in the game, according to Sen. Rick Scott.

Scott denied in an interview with NPR that he wanted to raise taxes.

I don't want to raise anyone's taxes, but I want to have the conversation. That doesn't work. We have billionaires that are not paying income taxes.

The Tax Policy Center estimated that a plan to make all Americans pay at least $100 in income taxes would raise $100 billion in revenue. The plan would be highly regressive, as more than 80% of the tax increase would be paid by households making less than $100,000.

Scott's claims about not supporting tax increases while wanting more Americans to pay taxes are silly.

I don't understand what Scott is saying if you want people to pay more taxes than they are paying now. He said that the reason people don't pay federal income tax is because they don't make enough money.

Wealthy taxpayers who don't pay federal income taxes in a given year are a small share of non-payers.

The tax code is progressive, and there may be cases where someone with a lot of wealth has little income. That is unusual.