> Do "normal Americans" pay taxes? Yes. The on-average crossover between negative and positive net total federal income (individuals will differ because of in

> Do "normal Americans" pay taxes? Yes. The on-average crossover between negative and positive net total federal income (individuals will differ because of individual circumstance beyond just income level) tax when taking into account refundable credits (most notably, but not exclusively, EITC) is a bit below the median personal income but not that far below it, so certainly lots of individual "normal" (by most reasonable definitions) Americans do not pay net federal income tax . But even if they don't pay net federal income taxes, they probably still pay a net positive amount in a variety of state taxes, federal payroll taxes, and federal consumption taxes (e.g., gas tax.)