• Americans who earned more than $1 million in adjusted gross income paid $178 billion, or an average of $740,000 per filer, in income taxes in 2004. That's up about one-third from 2002. 

• That means the wealthiest 1% of tax filers paid a 35% of all individual income-tax payments tin 2004. 

• The top 3% pay as much as the other 97% while the bottom 30% with a family income of $30,000 or less pay no taxes (WSJ article). 

The 2004 tax and income statistics also show that:

• reported taxable income from those in the highest tax bracket rose by 39%; 

• dividend income was up 42% 

• capital gains income was up 98% 

• small business net income surged 24.4% in 2004