Record number of rich paid no taxes

WASHINGTON - A record number of wealthy people paid no U.S. income taxes in 2000, the IRS reported Thursday.

The number is still a tiny percentage of taxpayers that the government considers wealthy - those who report earning $200,000 or more. A larger, but still very small group, eliminated nearly all of their tax liability using various deductions and tax advantages.

The IRS found that 2,328 wealthy people avoided U.S. income taxes in 2000, the most recent year for which statistics are available. That was a 45 percent jump from the previous year.

Those taxpayers represent a fraction of 1 percent of the 2.8-million people who reported incomes exceeding $200,000. Those with the lowest tax bills reported less income earned through wages and salaries than those who paid more.

In addition, the nation's richest people paid a lower proportion of their income in federal taxes in 2000 than in 1992, the IRS said.

In 2000, the country's top 400 taxpayers paid 22.3 percent of their income to federal income taxes, down from 26.4 percent in 1992.

The richest 400 made 1.09 percent of U.S. income in 2000, more than double the percentage in 1992, when they accounted for just 0.52 percent, the IRS said.

Over the nine-year period, the minimum adjusted gross income to get on the top 400 list more than tripled, from $24.4-million to $86.8-million.

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