4 ms·
Because while Reagan lowered the top tax rates, he also eliminated many loopholes that were allowing top earners to effectively pay very little in taxes. At th
by bmelton 11y ago
Because while Reagan lowered the top tax rates, he also eliminated many loopholes that were allowing top earners to effectively pay very little in taxes.
At the end of the day, pre-Reagan, a 1 percenter might have had a stated tax rate of 70-80%, but due to the massive amount of loopholes and write-offs, were only paying 25-35% in practice. Reagan's reforms allowed for less loopholes and write-offs, which curbed the effort many were willing to go to for tax avoidance, while also meaning that people were paying about the same as before, but paying closer to their actually stated tax rates.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- chris_va 11y agoYes, to some extent. Since we are looking at Saez: http://eml.berkeley.edu/~saez/course/Labortaxes/taxableincome/taxableincome_attach.pdf http://eml.berkeley.edu/~saez/course/Labortaxes/taxableincom... You can see the massive shift in _reported individual income_ around the tax cuts.
- prostoalex 11y agoMajor loopholes (when sorted by revenue lost) in current tax code are standard deduction and home mortgage interest deduction. Touch either one of those and you'll quickly find out how many voters go from loophole-closing to "damn bureucrats from Washington reaching into our pockets again".