"More than a quarter of the people earning an average of over $200 million in 2009 paid less than 15 percent of their adjusted gross income in taxes."

"...the Internal Revenue Service released data
from the 400 individual income tax returns reporting the highest adjusted gross income.

This elite ultrarich group earned on average $202 million in 2009,
the latest year available.

And buried in the data is the startling disclosure
that six of the 400 paid no federal income tax.

The I.R.S. has never before disclosed that last fact.

...that data demonstrates that many of the ultrarich
can and do reduce their tax liability to very low levels, even zero.

Besides the six who paid no federal income tax,
the I.R.S. reported that 27 paid from zero to 10 percent of their adjusted gross incomes
and another 89 paid between 10 and 15 percent...

...82 paid 30 to 35 percent.

None paid more than 35 percent.

...more than a quarter of the people earning an average of over $200 million in 2009
paid less than 15 percent of their adjusted gross income in taxes.

...Their average income, $202 million, dropped from $270 million in 2008
and was the lowest since 2004.

...most income comes from capital gains and other investment income.

Their net capital gains (the data doesn’t include gross gains and losses)
dropped by nearly 40 percent, from an average of $154 million in 2008 to $93 million in 2009,
which accounts for nearly all of their drop in total income.

Even with these lower gains, these 400 taxpayers,
a minuscule fraction of the population at large,
still managed to account for 16 percent of all capital gains.

That is the highest percentage since the data was first released for 1992,
when that percentage was less than 6 percent.

...The superrich also accounted for a disproportionate amount of dividend income,
which averaged over $26 million for the top 400,
or over 6 percent of total dividend income, also a record.

Capital gains and dividends are both taxed at a maximum rate of 15 percent,
as opposed to the maximum rate on earned income of 35 percent,
which helps explain why so many of the superrich pay a relatively low rate.

...What does it take to get to zero, or close to it?

...there are only two additional ways:
tax loss carry-forwards to offset capital gains, and tax shelters,
many of which have been deemed abusive by the I.R.S.,
to offset any remaining ordinary income after other deductions.

...What’s abundantly clear...from the returns of the top 400,
is that at the very pinnacle of taxpayers, the United States has a regressive tax system.

The top 400 earn more than 1 percent of all income in the United States,
more than double their share in 1992.

These 400 earned a total of $81 billion in 2009
— but paid an average tax rate of just 19.9 percent.

“It’s regressive because capital gains and dividends dominate the top returns
and are taxed at a preferential rate,”...

...“Our tax code has a number of flaws,
one of which is that it doesn’t do a very good job of discriminating based on income."

NYT