"According to the Office of Tax Analysis, the U.S. individual income tax is "highly progressive," with a small group of higher-income taxpayers paying most of the individual income taxes each year." " The top 5 percent of taxpayers paid more than one-half (53.8 percent) of all individual income taxes, but reported roughly one-third (30.6 percent) of income." "The top 1 percent of taxpayers paid 33.7 percent of all individual income taxes in 2002. This group of taxpayers has paid more than 30 percent of individual income taxes since 1995." "Taxpayers who rank in the top 50 percent of taxpayers by income pay virtually all individual income taxes." "This group paid over 96 percent of the total." "Treasury Department analysts credit President Bush's tax cuts with shifting a larger share of the individual income taxes paid to higher income taxpayers." Under his plan: a) The share of taxes paid by the bottom 50 percent of taxpayers will fall from 4.1 percent to 3.6 percent. b) The share of taxes paid by the top 1 percent of taxpayers will rise from 32.3 percent to 33.7 percent "The White House has announced it will lobby Congress to pass legislation making most of President Bush's tax cutting measures permanent." Source: U.S. Treasury, Office of Tax Analysis