What is a realistic example of what I'd have to do as an individual to get my tax burden down to 1%? Also, why do billionaires and those who need it the least pay proportionally less in taxes than I do?
Get married and have a few kids and for most working and middle class people, your federal income tax liability will be in that range or even below it.
Note that right away, it begins with taxable income. That means you've already subtracted the standard deduction (25k for married couples), and any pretax deductions like 401(k)s or HSAs, which could be up to ~25k, and health insurance premiums.
The current Child Tax Credit is 3600 for children under 6 (3000 for children 6 and over.)
So, based on the above tables, assuming that a married couple can do no better than the standard deduction, and qualifies for no tax credits other than two Child Tax credits, they have to have more than about 63k of taxable income to be paying any federal income tax at all.
