New York Times on the top 400 taxpayers

After I wrote my earlier post, the New York Times weighed in with some related observations of its own on the same report:

Now wealthy people, he said, pay income tax rates well below those of working-class citizens because of a myriad of tax breaks. A lower capital gains tax, now at 15 percent, down from 28 percent in 1997, benefits investors with big portfolios.

The average adjusted gross income in 2006 of more than $263 million for the top 400 taxpayers compared with an average of $214 million in 2005. It was three and a half times what they earned in 1996, which was $74 million.

And their average tax rate continued to a 15-year low of 17 percent.