Is the federal income tax a progressive tax or a regressive tax?

A progressive tax is when the government imposes a tax code that allows them to charge higher taxes to those who have a lot of income, while charging a lower rate to those with a lower income. A regressive tax is when the complete opposite happens. The government would tax the rich less and tax the poor more. Although a regressive tax is seen as unethical, some economists believe that in doing so would cause a boom in investment from the wealthy, but would crush the poor and middle class. The type of tax the federal income tax follows is obviously the progressive tax. Our country imposes higher tax percentages on people with higher incomes. It is believed that people who make millions of dollars are more than able to pay their taxes and live in extreme comfort, while people with less need to be taxed less, so they can live as good as they can. The IRS split the tax rates into brackets that range from 10% to 40%, and each bracket contains an income range that people fall in to determine their tax rate.