We retired Tax Justice Blog in April 2017. For new content on issues related to tax justice, go to www.justtaxesblog.org
Should Tax Hikes on these Americans Be “Off the Table?”
As House Speaker John Boehner and other Republican leaders in Congress continue to assert that tax increases even on the very wealthiest Americans are “off the table,” one rationale sometimes advanced for this view is that Americans who work hard and become successful have to pay over a third of their income in federal income taxes.
A new CTJ report describes data recently released from the IRS showing that this is not remotely true. The IRS data show that the federal income tax rates paid by the highest-income Americans have dropped substantially since 2000, largely due to cuts in the tax rates on capital gains and dividends pushed through by the Bush Administration.