Millions More Taxpayers Affected By An Increase In Top Marginal Income Tax Rates Now Than 1950s Rate Of 91 Percent: Increase In Top Rates Will Have Greater Negative Economic Impact Today Than In The Past

Posted by Milton Recht:

From Tax Foundation, "CRS, at odds with Academic Studies, Continues to Claim No Harm in Raising Top Earners Tax Rates" by William McBride:

The top rate in the late 1950s was 91 percent, but it only applied to income of $3 million or more, in inflation adjusted terms. As Peter Schiff at the Wall Street Journal points out, the top rate applied to no more than a couple hundred taxpayers (in 1958, 236 of 45.6 million taxpayers paid at a rate of 81 percent or more). Today, the top rates are much more broadly applicable. Raising the top two rates of 33 and 35 percent, as the President proposes, would affect 3.9 million taxpayers, out of about 140 million.