A majority of Americans support raising the top tax rate to 70 percent

Re:A majority of Americans support raising the top tax rate ... by gjsman-1000 on Wednesday January 16, 2019 @03:41PM (#18924940)

Yes, but the _effective_ tax rate was only about half that, 49%-ish, because there were so many exemptions.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:A majority of Americans support raising the top tax rate ... by danans on Wednesday January 16, 2019 @03:50PM (#18925015)

> because there were so many exemptions.

The effective tax rate was lower primarily because 91% was the top marginal tax rate. Even those who paid the top marginal rate still had most of their income taxed at lower marginal tax rates, just as it is today.

Also, a large number of exemptions still exist today.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:A majority of Americans support raising the top tax rate ... by hackeraccount on Wednesday January 16, 2019 @04:06PM (#18925248)

It used to be that all interest was deductible.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:A majority of Americans support raising the top tax rate ... by danans on Wednesday January 16, 2019 @07:31PM (#18927198)

This seems ripe for tax evasion. Two parties could loan each other the same amount, through different shell entities, and both could deduct the interest on the payments to the other.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:A majority of Americans support raising the top tax rate ... by charlescearl on Wednesday January 16, 2019 @04:02PM (#18925187)

Piketty’s paper [1] gives a break out of U.S. tax 1970 vs. 2004. It looks like this proposal would effectively return the U.S. to postwar pre Reagan era norms? If I’m reading the table correctly the effective rate in 1970 for the highest bracket is 74.6%.

[1] https://eml.berkeley.edu/~saez/piketty-saezJEP07taxprog.pdf

[ Parent | on HN ]