Think taxes are high now? Take a look at historical federal income tax rates through the years, 1913 to 2010.
From the Tax Foundation:
"U.S. Federal Individual Income Tax Rates History, 1913-2010"
http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/151.html
Download the PDF file of the report to see the data more clearly.
Notice the initial top rate in 1913 was only 7%. But politicians have always been the same, weasels all of them. It only took three years before they raised the top marginal rate to 15%. And then the following year, in 1917, they raised the top marginal rate to 67%. Sixty-seven-fucking-percent!!! They didn't stop there. In 1918 the top rate was 77%.
Some sanity returned in 1927, when the top marginal rate was lowered to 25% This didn't last long, though. In 1932 we were back up to 63%. And in 1936 it was all the way up to 79%. In 1944 the top marginal rate was all the way up to 94%! And this was for all income above $200,000, whereas the top marginal rate in 1917 (67%) only kicked in at $2,000,000 or above!
Top marginal rates remained above 90% for a decade and a half, and stayed high (70%) for a decade after that.
Top rates dropped to 50% in 1982 and to 28% in 1988, both under Reagan. The economy took off. Our top marginal rate is currently at 35%.
The sad truth is that while our government takes in a lot of money now, our top marginal federal income tax rate today is actually fairly low by historical standards.
Monday, November 22, 2010
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I can't believe you're complaining about peak tax rates at the height of WW1 and WW2 and the Cold War! War is expensive - someone had to pay for the equipment. Would you prefer the USA had lost those wars?? And the "sanity" of 1927 was followed by a very famous stock crash... It seems you could greatly benefit from learning something about US history!
ReplyDeleteYeah, it was the tax rates that caused the Great Depression. Sure it was...
ReplyDeleteYou also have a rather poor grasp of the difference between tax rates and tax collections.