I am searching for statistics in examining the correlation between the
three main political parties (Republican, Democrat and Independent)
and Federal Income Taxes Paid. Realizing other political parties
exist, I am mainly interested in the three above mentioned. Keep in
mind, I am not looking for theory or politically correct rhetoric; I
am interested in published, documented statistical data.

Of the total Federal Tax pie, what is the percentage breakdown of
monies received from the population and the three party affiliates?
For example, what percentage of the total tax pie do registered
Republicans contribute? Please include the breakdown for Independents
and Democrats as well.

I would also like to know the percentage of persons in each group who
do pay Federal Income Tax.

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Clarification of Question by youngnonna-ga on 21 Jul 2002 16:57 PDT

I would also like to know the percentage of persons in each group who
do NOT pay Federal Income Tax.

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Clarification of Question by youngnonna-ga on 22 Jul 2002 08:34 PDT

A big thank you for the three comments. The information provided was
very helpful and full of interesting insight. Apparently the data I
asked for has not been compiled; however, quite a bit can be gleaned
form the information that does exist. Again thank you for your
efforts.

Although I don't know for sure, I doubt such data exists. The IRS does
not ask people what political party they belong to. In fact, the idea
of being a registered party member means different things in different
states. In Ohio, for instance, your party registration is just
whichever party's primary you voted in last, if any. Certainly you
could find surveys that measure party affiliation by income level. For
example, the University of Michigan's National Election Studies says
that in 2000, 62 percent of respondents in the bottom 16 percentile of
income called themselves Democrats, 22 percent at that income level
considered themselves Republican and 14 percent considered themselves
independent.

This is an interesting question to me, so I am going to see what is
out there.  But, some things that come to mind to think about for your
study.
1)  The majority of people do not vote in Federal elections.  Even in
a Presidential year, when someone indicates 50% voter turnout, they
are referring to 50% of registered voters.  However, even though they
aren't registered and don't vote, many of these same people do lean
towards one party or another.  Are you looking for registered voters
and party-members, or simply political leanings?
2)  Are you only interested in personal income tax?  Corporations and
other entities also pay taxes, but, are in theory not affiliated with
a particular party.
3)  There are other federal taxes, such as gasoline taxes, which would
also make up some of the pie.  I take it that your are only interested
in monies paid by individuals as part of their income tax.  Not when
they buy cars, not when they pay phone bills or cable bills, not when
they buy gas.
4)  "Independent" has many different meanings.  In some states, I
believe they have an "Independent" party.  In other cases, Independent
is the answer given when people mean not affiliated with Republican or
Democrat.

Having said all that, I'll poke around and see what I can find.

Unfortunately, I could not find data correlate to the amount of Income
Tax paid (which is separate from how much income is earned).  I think
you will have trouble finding that data, as a previous researcher
noted, since the IRS does not capture party affiliation.

With the data available it would still be difficult to answer your
exact question, as typically the highest quintile is marked at
$100,000+ or $250,000+, for example.  It would be difficult to know
how many of them are millionaires or billionaires.

Nonetheless, you may find some of the following links helpful:
AEI Conference Summaries, "American Politics and Income
Redistribution", by
Keith T. Poole, 1996.
http://www.aei.org/cs/cs6924.htm
"An important factor shaping the respective positions of the two
parties is income. The average median income of districts with a
Republican in the House of Represent-atives is approximately $4,000
higher than that in Democratic districts. In the higher income
quintiles, more people identify themselves as Republicans now than did
in 1972. Moreover, the higher the income quintile, the greater the
increase in Republican party identification. The lowest three
quintiles, however, are still overwhelmingly Democratic. In fact,
since 1972 only the lowest income quintile has seen a drop in the
percentage of people identifying themselves as Republicans. "

The National Election Study
http://www.umich.edu/~nes/

2000 Election Analysis
http://www.newsaic.com/mwelection2000.html#familyincome

Political Polarization and Income Inequality (PDF file)
http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/inequality/Summer/Summer01/papers/Rosenthal01.pdf

"Visualizing Presidential Election Results (1992-2000)using Spotfire"
by Evren Sirin
http://www.cs.umd.edu/class/spring2002/cmsc838f/Apps/presentations/Evren_Sirin/
(perhaps the author can be contacted for the graphics and data)