what is the overall average taxes an american pays
The New York Times reported on April 8, 2009, that the average American paid 20.7 percent of all her income in federal taxes. This did not include state and local taxes. The highest 20 percent of income earners paid almost 26 percent of their income in personal federal income taxes, while making almost 56 percent of all income. The top 1 percent of Americans received a full fifth of all American income while paying 28 percent of their income in federal taxes.
The short answer is that the average American tax return resulted in a tax bill of $9,118. During the most recent year for which we have complete data (2014), there were about 148.6 million tax returns filed, resulting in approximately $1.355 trillion in tax liability, after applying credits.