at the end of the day, she pays tax rate of 16%. then points to a married couple making $105,000 a year where they pay a 19% rate. pediatrician and spouse making $173,900 a year, paying 23% rate. leading to this conclusion. 16, 19, 23. it s the basic core of our progressive tax system. the white house points to group of multimillionaires it claims only pays 18% rate. others, however, argue the tax system is so progressive that 40 to 50% of all working americans pay no income tax at all. one reason critics suspected something was wrong with the white house numbers. the executive system, we didn t come up with 16%. we got 7%. when we look at the teacher and the cop, we couldn t get 19. we got 10%. finally when we look at the doctor, not 23%.