Monday, April 15, 2013

the one man tax rate

In 1935, president Roosevelt set a special 79% tax rate on those earning more than $5 million a year. According to historian Mark Leff, only one man in America made that much money over the following three years: John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

[More from the article:]

The federal government collected tax receipts equal to 15.8% of GDP in 2012. That's less than the average of 17.7% since 1945, and a touch below the 16% average of the last decade.

But perhaps more important than the amount of taxes collected is how the burden has shifted. In 1950, corporate taxes made up 27% of revenue, and payroll taxes brought in 11%. By 1980, it was 12.5% and 30.5%, respectively. And by 2011, corporate taxes made up 7.9% of revenue, while payroll taxes made up 35.5%:

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