Taxing California’s poor

California’s lowest-income families are paying the most in taxes when measured as a share of family income. The bottom 5th percent of California’s non-elderly families (with an average income of $12,600) spend 10.2 percent of their earnings on state and local taxes. The wealthiest 1 percent (with an average income of $2.3 million) spend 7.4 percent of their incomes on state and local taxes. Lower-income families pay a greater share of sales and excise taxes paid by businesses, while higher-income families pay a greater share of the corporate income tax.

Source: California Budget Project report of April, 2012