The paragraph below comes from the New York Times' report on Romney's recorded comments in which he said he did not care about the 47 percent of the people” who pay no income tax, are dependent on government programs, and unwilling to take personal responsibility.
Mr. Romney’s figure of 47 percent may come from the Tax Policy Center, which found that 46.4 percent of households paid no federal income tax in 2011. But most households did pay payroll taxes. Of the 18.1 percent of households that paid neither income taxes nor payroll taxes, the center found that more than half were elderly and more than a third were not elderly but had incomes under $20,000. Roberton Williams, a senior fellow at the center, wrote in a blog post last summer that about half of those were off the rolls
because they had low incomes.
