This drop in overall federal tax burdens has been driven by a pronounced decline in income-tax burdens. 

·         The Center estimates that the median-income family of four will pay only 5.6 percent of its income in federal income taxes in 2006, roughly the same as in 2003, 2004, and 2005.  These “effective tax rates” represent the lowest levels on record, with data going back to 1955.  (The Center’s estimates were derived by updating a 1998 Treasury Department analysis that examined changes since 1955 in the percentage of income that the median-income family of four pays in federal income taxes.[2])