Last week’s story naming America’s billionaires who manage somehow to pay little to no income tax set off outrage that varied largely, I’m guessing, on how much money you happen to have in the bank.

The story by investigative journalists at ProPublica reported that, overall, the richest 25 Americans pay less in tax — an average of 15.8 percent of adjusted gross income — than most ordinary workers do.

As expected, the story quickly heightened national debate over inequality between uber-wealthy and Americans like you and me.

Discussions returned to whether Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s proposed “wealth tax” is the way to go, or if it’s even constitutional.

The story also triggered outrage over how this confidential Internal Revenue Service info came to be leaked in the first place.

Apparently, an anonymous source delivered to ProPublica reams of IRS data on the country’s wealthiest people, like investor Warren Buffett, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, businessman Rupert Murdoch and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

ProPublica says it was able to independently confirm the information.

It reported that, in total, the 25 richest Americans saw their wealth rise $401 billion over a four-year period as the value of their investments, like stocks and properties, grew. They paid $13.6 billion in income taxes, or 3.4 percent of their wealth gain. For context, middle-class Americans in their early 40s paid almost the same amount in taxes.

And we were off to the races.

Friends debated tax rates. The story became a topic at my dinner table. Co-workers broached the subject. And much national news coverage and multiple opinion pieces moved on the news wire.

One of the many debates focused on the federal tax code’s setup. The rich are supposed to pay a steadily higher tax rate on income as it rises. But ProPublica determined people earning between $2 million and $5 million a year paid an average of 27.5 percent, the highest of any group of taxpayers.

Above $5 million, the top .001 percent of taxpayers — 1,400 people who reported income above $69 million — paid 23 percent. The 25 very richest people paid even less — based largely on completely legal loopholes.

So, should the rich pay more?

Democrats say unequivocally yes! The story affirmed Dems’ long-standing accusations the IRS gives the wealthiest free passes while hounding lower-income people.

President Joe Biden proposes raising the top tax rate by about 2.6 percent to 39.6 percent for people earning $400,000 a year or more in taxable income. That’s less than 2 percent of U.S. households.

Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren and others propose taxing the wealth of the richest Americans — not just their income. But arguments exist that a federal wealth tax is unconstitutional because the U.S. Constitution forbids the federal government from enacting “direct taxes” not apportioned equally among the states.

And Republicans in Congress were crying out loudly about this IRS data leak, questioning how private tax data was disclosed. They are pressing the Treasury Department and IRS to pursue criminal charges.

“Taxpayers must have the utmost confidence in federal institutions that house their personal and confidential information,” a group of Republican senators said in letters demanding an investigation.

A deputy IRS commissioner said the matter has been referred for investigation to the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office. Potential criminal penalties exist for federal employees or other individuals who leak tax information.

And, of course, there is the debate over how the rich can do this in the first place.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. said, “You have a better chance of being struck by lightning than being audited if you’re a partner in a partnership.”

In response, IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig said, “We are outgunned.”

Biden wants to budget billions more to bolster IRS audits of the rich.

Whether that would pinpoint inappropriate filings remains to be seen. Perhaps it’s just a matter of rich people being able to better afford the financial advisers or attorneys that can find the legal loopholes.

At the end of the day, that might lead to the biggest debate of all.

blinert@tribtoday.com