Tax Foundation

The Tax Foundation has a fascinating new post looking at the latest IRS data on "millionaires," by which it means taxpayers who report more than $1 million in annual income.

The number of million-dollar earners fell 40 percent in the financial industry meltdown and Great Recession of 2007-2009 before making a comeback in 2010, the most recent year available.

In 2010 about 268,000 taxpayers reported adjusted gross income of $1 million or more, up from 237,000 in 2009, which was a six-year low.

Of course millionaires represent just a tiny fraction of the nation's 143 million taxpayers -- just a small sliver of the top 1 percent. (It's about the top 0.2 percent.)

And while millionaires are making a comeback, the picture has been less promising for the vast millions of the middle class. A census report last fall showed that the nation's median income was $49,445 in 2010, a decline of 2.3 percent from 2009 when adjusted for inflation.

The Tax Foundation report shows that the nation's wealthiest earners typically share a few traits: They are older, well educated and tend to have more than one income in the household.

For example 86 percent of "millionaire" tax returns were filed by married couples, compared with only 40 percent of all tax returns. (The vast majority of tax returns are filed as single individuals or heads of household.)

Nearly half of all millionaire filers were 55 and older.

The Tax Foundation also points out that millionaire status can be fleeting. Of the 675,000 taxpayers who earned over $1 million for at least one year in the past decade, only 6 percent maintained that status for all nine years. Half broke the $1 million barrier in just one tax year, and another 15 percent broke the barrier twice.

Folks at the Tax Foundation, who are also behind the annual "Tax Freedom Day," figure that the average effective tax rate on million-dollar earners has remained "fairly high throughout the period." The effective federal tax rate on these high earners fell from 29 percent in 2003 to 23 percent in 2007 before rising again to 25 percent as of 2010.

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Reuters

While many of us were still pinching our pennies as a result of the recent recession, some lucky folks were becoming newly minted millionaires.

A new report from The Boston Consulting Group finds that the number of millionaire households worldwide increased by 12.2 percent in 2010, to 12.5 million.

Although those millionaires represent just 0.9 percent of all households, they control about 39 percent of all global wealth, according to the report. That’s up from 37 percent in 2009.

The general rise in global wealth can largely be attributed to last year’s strong rebound in the financial markets 

The United States has the most millionaires of any country, with an estimated 5.2 million households holding assets into the seven figures. But your chances of being a millionaire are better in Singapore, where the report says 15.5 percent of all households have at least $1 million.

The Boston Consulting Group defines millionaires as having $1 million in cash and investments, excluding things like houses, cars and investments in a business.

Tip of hat to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the story.

Source: Deloitte analysis and Oxford Economics

Watch out, Connecticut. In a few years New Jersey will be crowned the state with the highest density of millionaires.

Last year, 14.2 percent of households in Connecticut had more than $1 million in assets. By 2020, 24.6 percent of the population of New Jersey is expected to by millionaires, according to a new study that maps out the global distribution of wealth.

California, Texas, New York and Florida will likely be home to the greatest number of millionaires in 2020, while the Midwest is forecast to have the fewest, according to the study, which was sponsored by the Deloitte Center for Financial Services.

Wealth among millionaire households could more than double over the next decade in 25 major economies, the study found, growing from an estimated $92 trillion this year to $202 trillion in 2020.