The 47 (Now 43) Percent, In One Quick Video

By Dylan Matthews, Published: August 30

As Brad noted yesterday, the share of people paying no income taxes has fallen from 47 percent to 43.3 percent. And of those left, 28.9 percent pay payroll tax, 9.7 percent are elderly, and 3.4 percent earn less than $20,000. Only 1.3 percent don’t pay income or payroll taxes and are neither elderly nor poor.

That’s a lot of numbers, so luckily Roberton Williams, the Sol Price Fellow at the Urban Institute and the Tax Policy Center, has a great video breaking it down, with whiteboard drawings! It’s not every day that one gets to savor revenue data presented through cartoon drawings, so savor it, people:

Dylan Matthews covers taxes, poverty, campaign finance, higher education, and all things data. He has also written for The New Republic, Salon, Slate, and The American Prospect. Follow him on Twitter here. Email him here.