Poll: up to $500k still middle class
President Obama and the Democratic Party are targeting families earning $250,000 or more for higher taxes and Republicans accuse them of fomenting class warfare.
In the context of that debate, likely voters were asked what income level would make a family wealthy.
For the middle class, wealth begins at $500k or $1 million.
Almost 40 percent of people said that threshold was reached at a minimum $500,000 of annual income. Nineteen percent set the "wealthy" level at $500,000 and 20 percent put the bar above $1 million.
By contrast, 31 percent of people said a family earning $250,000 a year is wealthy, 19 percent said $100,000 was the threshold, and 7 percent said $50,000.
The national debate over wealth intensified last week when Obama challenged Republicans to pass legislation extending Bush-era tax rates only for households earning less than $250,000.
Fewer than 2-in-5 likely voters (37 percent) think they can ever become rich.
The findings suggest pessimism about the possibility of upward mobility as economic growth remains weak and jobs scarce.
The poll, conducted by Pulse Opinion Research among 1,000 likely voters, has a 3 percentage point margin of error.
It shows voters trust Republicans and GOP candidate Mitt Romney more on taxes than Democrats and Obama, even though they support the president's quarter-million dollar cut-off.
Asked which political party people "trust more" on taxes, 43 percent said Republicans and 36 percent said Democrats; 46 percent said they trusted Romney more while 42 percent believed Obama is more trustworthy on taxes.
Views diverged based on income levels, with voters earning between $40,000 and $75,000 strongly preferring Romney over Obama.
Among people earning between $40,000 and $60,000, 48 percent trust Romney more compared to 39 percent for Obama. People earning between $60,000 and $75,000 trust Romney more than Obama by a 34-point margin, 61 percent to 27 percent.
The president polled better among voters earning more than $100,000, with 51 percent saying they trusted him and 44 percent preferring Romney on taxes.
The Internal Revenue Service, in statistics from the 2009 tax year, said it took $343,927 in annual income to be in the top 1 percent of tax filers and $112,124 to be in the top 10 percent.