A new study shows that the ranks of people earning $1 million or more are highly variable from year to year. That implies that millionaires aren’t quite the monolithic class that some political rhetoric might suggest.
In fact, from 1999 to 2007, about 50% of people who earned $1 million or more in any given year only managed to achieve the feat once, according to the research by the nonpartisan Tax Foundation. Another 15% did it twice.
Just 6% filed in all nine years with incomes more than $1 million. Millionaires often generate their income through one-time sales of small businesses, or other appreciated assets.
The Tax Foundation, which receives funding from foundations as well as businesses and individuals, says its job is to “educate taxpayers about sound tax policy and the size of the tax burden borne by Americans at all levels of government.”
Overall, about 675,000 households earned over $1 million in any year during the period of the study.
The data broadly mirror previous findings concerning the top 400 earners in the U.S.
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