Top Tax Rate

What should the rate be on the top earners?

Well, according to a poll conducted by the Hill, 75% of Americans feel that it should be 30% or less.

While Americans may feed on the chum thrown to them in the form of “Tax the Rich”, most people continue to feel that tax rates ought to remain modest.

6 responses to “Top Tax Rate

  1. If you want proof that Obama style class warfare does not work, you only have to look at our good friends the French . And just like the French, those stupid Americans who voted Democrat will have to learn the hard way . It’s a shame that Hollande does not have the Obama Propaganda Press machine which blames everything on the opposition and wins .

    http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/12/30/french-panel-overturns-75-percent-upper-tax-rate-saying-its-excessive/

  2. Actually, I’d love a top tax rate of 30%, so long as it’s for all income (including capital gains) and there are virtually no deductions. Mitt Romney and most millionaires and wealthy pay less than 20%. So yes, let’s raise the top tax rate to 30% – meaning the wealthy pay 30% of their income! That would be a huge tax hike.

    • Actually, I’d love a top tax rate of 30%, so long as it’s for all income (including capital gains) and there are virtually no deductions.

      Why Scott, you almost sound like the most recent failed Presidential candidate.

      Mitt Romney and most millionaires and wealthy pay less than 20%.

      Nah, the latest CBO numbers have the top 1%, those earning an average of $1,219,700, right at 28.9%. A far cry from the “less than 20%” you mention. You don’t get to “under 20%” until you hit the 81st to 90th percentile. And by then, the average income is $131,700.

      Now remember, that the share of federal taxes paid by that 1% represents 22.3% of all the federal tax revenue. Twenty two point three! And their income? 11.5%. Not only are they paying their fair share, but they are paying TWICE their fair share.

      Even more interesting. Of the five quintiles, the first four have a larger share of all income than they have a share of all federal tax.

      Anyway, the point is. People think that Obama has the mandate to raise taxes on the wealthy. But he’s long since past the theoretical limit of where people in America think that rate should be.

  3. Good, it shouldn’t be too hard to move them up to 30% – and those below them. Sounds like a far compromise! Of course they pay the most – to have the poor who are struggling pay as much as the rich who can afford it with no real harm to their lifestyle would be perverse. The rich benefit the most from what our system provides, to ask them to pay more is just (and to do otherwise might risk revolt). To think that they earn all that just because the market allows them to get it defies any rational analysis.

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