4 ms·

Post-WWII (and through 1964), the top marginal income tax rate in the United States was 91% http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_tax_in_the_United_States#Histor

• liquidise 13y ago
  While [i hope] no one is suggesting a tax rate of 90+ %, i have to imagine that anything even close to that will result in widespread shipping of jobs and management overseas. Once a few companies do that, how much revenue loss would the states encounter. Substantial, i would think.
  • bencpeters 13y ago
    I really like this work: http://www.epi.org/publication/raising-income-taxes/ http://www.epi.org/publication/raising-income-taxes/ It basically suggests that: a)top tax rates have historically had virtually no significant effects on overall economic growth b)we are well below the optimal tax rate for maximizing revenues The authors of the paper on which this summary article is based on go on to suggest an optimal top effective rate of 68.7% as the revenue maximizing point (basically the optimal trade-off between revenue and dampening effects and/or evasion) I find this work pretty convincing...
  • rndmize 13y ago
    I fail to see why. Perhaps you could detail the jobs that would be shipped overseas as a result of this, particularly those that haven't been already? Further, I don't really see how a high top income tax bracket would affect much. It doesn't look to me like it affects businesses (its not a corporate tax) - only the pay of people at the top of the chain. Are those people going to revoke their citizenship and move elsewhere to avoid the taxes?
    • liquidise 13y ago
      It is important to make a distinction between shipping manual labor overseas vs cash stores. Apple came under fire for holding most of their finances overseas, and their argument was one of taxes. The higher the tax rates go, the more fortune 500's will move their cash to places where it is not being taxed as heavily.