April 18, 2011

Tax Day Charts!

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Courtesy of Dave Gilson, here’s a whole bunch of handy charts for tax day to show you who’s paying how much to whom. For example, the chart below shows average effective tax rates for various income levels. Note that the federal tax system as a whole (including both payroll and income taxes) is fairly progressive at the bottom half of the income scale but then flattens out. Someone making an absolutely average income pays about 16.3% of their income in taxes, and that goes up to only 19.8% for someone at the very tippy top. That’s pretty damn flat for an allegedly progressive tax code. More here.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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