Category Archives: Fair Tax

Fair Tax Bracket Reinstitution Congressional Proposal

Marginal 50% Tax Rate

If enacted, People’s Lobby’s  Fair Tax Bracket Re-institution Act (FTBRA) would add an IRS tax bracket so that:

  1. Those amounts earned over $5 million annually will be taxed at a 50% flat rate
  2. Those amounts earned over $10 million annually will be taxed at a 70% flat rate.
  3. These will be flat tax rate brackets with no deductions, so that loopholes do not allow the effective tax rate to be significantly less than IRS codes purportedly call for on the rich.

The $5 million household would have to struggle by on a net income of about $4 million per year; the $200 million household on about $126,500,000 per year;  the $1 billion household on about $646,500,000 per year.

If we had kept the site even more progressive tax rates that existed during the Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Nixon administrations, we would not have the wealth disparity and economic breakdowns that we are having today.

If FTBRA existed, net income would look something like this.
Income Ested Tax % FTBRA % FTBRA % Net Ested
20% 50% 70% Income
$1,000,000 $200,000 $800,000
$2,000,000 $400,000 $1,600,000
$3,000,000 $600,000 $2,400,000
$4,000,000 $800,000 $3,200,000
$5,000,000 $1,000,000 $4,000,000
$10,000,000 $1,000,000 $2,500,000 $6,500,000
$20,000,000 $1,000,000 $2,500,000 $7,000,000 $9,500,000
$50,000,000 $1,000,000 $2,500,000 $21,000,000 $25,500,000
$100,000,000 $1,000,000 $2,500,000 $35,000,000 $61,500,000
$200,000,000 $1,000,000 $2,500,000 $70,000,000 $126,500,000
$500,000,000 $1,000,000 $2,500,000 $210,000,000 $286,500,000
$1,000,000,000 $1,000,000 $2,500,000 $350,000,000 $646,500,000
The second thing to note is that the overall tax rates are really not that high. Contrary to concerns about socialism or a government takeover, the richest Americans, those earning an average of $345 million in 2007, paid about 16.5 percent in federal income taxes.

Today’s top tax bracket, depending on whether Bush’s tax cuts expire or not in January 2011, are supposed to pay 35% now or 39.6% if the Clinton rates are reinstated.

As a recent IRS tax analysis by the Quick & the ED shows:  “The second thing to note is that the overall tax rates are really not that high. Contrary to concerns about socialism or a government takeover, the richest Americans, those earning an average of $345 million in 2007, paid about 16.5 percent in federal income taxes.”  http://www.quickanded.com/2010/02/effective-tax-rates-of-the-richest-400-americans.html

Forbes comes to a similar conclusion, as do tax experts like Author David Cay Johnston of Perfectly Legal

Richest 400 Earn More, Pay Lower Tax Rate

Janet Novack, 01.29.09, 05:00 PM EST

Top earners on average pulled in $263 million each in 2006, the IRS reports.

WASHINGTON, D.C.–The 400 highest-earning taxpayers in the U.S. reported a record $105 billion in total adjusted gross income in 2006, but they paid just $18 billion in tax, new Internal Revenue Service figures show. That works out to an average federal income tax bite of 17%–the lowest rate paid by the richest 400 during the 15-year period covered by the IRS statistics. The average federal tax bite on the top 400 was 30% in 1995 and 23% in 2002.  http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/29/irs-high-income-personal-finance-taxes_0129_wealthy_americans.html

Wealth Income Power

Click here to read details.

Table 8: Income equality in selected countries
Lower GINI # means more equality
Country/Overall Rank Gini Coefficient
1.  Sweden 23.0
2.  Norway 25.0
8.  Austria 26.0
10.  Germany 27.0
17.  Denmark 29.0
25.  Australia 30.5
34.  Italy 32.0
35.  Canada 32.1
37.  France 32.7
42.  Switzerland 33.7
43.  United Kingdom 34.0
45.  Egypt 34.4
56.  India 36.8
61.  Japan 38.1
68.  Israel 39.2
81.  China 41.5
82.  Russia 42.3
90.  Iran 44.5
93.  United States 45.0
107.  Mexico 48.2
125.  Brazil 56.7
133.  South Africa 65.0

Note: These figures reflect family/household income, not individual income.

Source: Central Intelligence Agency (2010).

Table 4: Share of wealth held by the Bottom 99% and Top 1% in theUnited States, 1922-2010.
Bottom 99 percent Top 1 percent
1922 63.3% 36.7%
1929 55.8% 44.2%
1933 66.7% 33.3%
1939 63.6% 36.4%
1945 70.2% 29.8%
1949 72.9% 27.1%
1953 68.8% 31.2%
1962 68.2% 31.8%
1965 65.6% 34.4%
1969 68.9% 31.1%
1972 70.9% 29.1%
1976 80.1% 19.9%
1979 79.5% 20.5%
1981 75.2% 24.8%
1983 69.1% 30.9%
1986 68.1% 31.9%
1989 64.3% 35.7%
1992 62.8% 37.2%
1995 61.5% 38.5%
1998 61.9% 38.1%
2001 66.6% 33.4%
2004 65.7% 34.3%
2007 65.4% 34.6%
2010 64.6% 35.4%
Sources: 1922-1989 data from Wolff (1996). 1992-2010 data from Wolff (2012).

 

Tax Bracket Reform Graphs

To view tax returns of top 400 income earners, click here.

Read how for first time in long time tax rates for top 400 households has risen.

Who Rules in America, Wealth, Income, and Power,

Figure 5: Share of capital income earned by top 1% and bottom 80%, 1979-2003 (From Shapiro & Friedman, 2006.)

Who Rules in America, Wealth, Income, and Power, by G. William Domhoff

Who Rules in America, Wealth, Income, and Power, by G. William Domhoff

Wealth of top 1% from 1922- 2001

Who Rules in America, Wealth, Income, and Power, by G. William Domhoff

Figure 6: CEOs’ pay as a multiple of the average worker’s pay

Who Rules in America, Wealth, Income, and Power, by G. William Domhoff

Other CEO compensation charts available at Forbes

http://www.forbes.com/2008/04/30/ceo-pay-historic-lead-bestbosses08-cx_sd_0430flash.html

CEO Compensation. Historic CEO Compensation -salary, bonus, other compensation
Designed by Christina Coviello 04.30.08