The rich are paying their share of taxes

To the editor:

Re: 'Go after the rich and leave the poor alone,' Letters, Jan. 19.

In last week's Mirror, letter writer Kay Matthews repeats the old shibboleths that "the rich don't pay their fair share of taxes" and we never hear about "the rich who bilk billions out of the system..."

First, many of those bilkers are actually serving long terms in jail even as we speak.

As for taxes, the top five per cent of all taxpayers (income more than $159,619 in 2008) paid 58.72 per cent of all federal income taxes. The bottom 50 per cent (under $33,048) paid - wait for it - just 2.7 per cent. The rich are paying.

As the late, great baseball manager Casey Stengel used to say, "You can look it up."

Claire Hoy