How would a 50% tax rate affect corporations and the wealthy??

[kentuck]

Would they create less jobs? Would it cause a major recession?

Or would it simply mean less for stockholders and the CEO's? And less for mergers? And less to put in the stock market?

Shouldn't Democrats be asking for higher taxes on the wealthy at this time? Or would it be a bad move politically?

[disidoro01]

1. How about this

Kentuck? Why aren't democrats asking, not shouldn't they be asking. Right there is the answer to your questions.

[leftstreet]

2. Would it stop politicians from gutting social programs?

Is there some guarantee the increased taxes would fund programs for the people? Why haven't military and intelligence budgets taken hits?

[Boom Sound 416]

13. +1

There is a story in GD about new missile silos in Vermont. I'm sure Raytheon would love for taxes to climb to 50%

[Nye Bevan]

3. Already there in New York City.

Top Federal rate is 39.6%, plus state tax of 8.8%, plus city tax of 3.6%.

[dugog55]

6. Already there?

You state that the top Federal Tax rate is 39.6%, it may be, but do you honestly think anyone with big money pays anywhere near that? Warren Buffet who makes millions a year and is worth billions, claims he pays a lower percentage than his secretary. Their actual tax rate is nowhere near 39.6%, unless they have idiots for tax lawyers.

[Nye Bevan]

8. Plenty of people do.

Warren Buffett is a bit of a special case because he makes all of his money from investments and so most of his taxes are capital gain taxes.

But anyone earning a large enough salary will be liable to pay the top rate of income tax.

[mainer]

11. I pay about 50% tax rate

combined federal + state + property.

And I don't have idiots for accountants. I just have law-abiding accountants.

It hasn't stopped me from still wanting to work.

[Boom Sound 416]

12. Income tax vs Capital gains

[mick063]

4. We have all seen the wealth disparity charts.

Some folks post as if we should link to them every time out. As if such things should be continuously "proven". As if every post should include the givens such as the "GOP or Rand Paul sucks" or that the wealthy elite are hoarding money.

I have a suggestion for those that tire of these cumbersome distractions. Distractions intentionally wrought to waste time and energy from solution based discussion.

Let us see if we can imbed such things to mitigate the never ending effort to discount or ignore the great wealth disparity.

I believe I should work on this.

[Lee-Lee]

5. Why stop at 50%?

[Monster_Mash]

7. Careful when you dig on stockholders...

That includes most Americans with a retirement account...

[kentuck]

9. 401K's ??

Which most workers withdraw from at some time or other. And how much do they have to pay in taxes??

[Igel]

14. No. Public pension funds.

Imagine Detroit's problem spread to every single city and town, every state pension, every federal pension ... In the next year or two.

That's what you'd get. We'd have to choice but to slash military spending (which would put a lot of civilians and soldiers and researchers on unemployment) to pay for retirees' pensions.

Meanwhile, the wealthy have pretty much always kept their actual tax rate at about 20-25%, whether the top tax rate was 90% or 50% or 35%. There's a blip for a year or two after a tax rate increase or decrease, but then it's back to 20-25%. It takes a few years to find deductions and ways to avoid taxes and then to implement them.

It's unclear that the windfall profits that would be funneled to lower-income folk would ever materialize. But the military as a path to upward mobility would be shot.

[TheDeputy]

10. Disastrous for many

Public Employee Pensions and non public 401k and other retirement funds invest in these stocks to properly fund the retirements of tens of millions of people. It would destroy the pension, for example, of every government employee in Ohio, past and present.

Stocks would plummet, jobs would flee overseas, manufacturing would die completely in America. An unmitigated disaster. Prices would skyrocket.

50% taxes would mean the death of American Industry. 50% isn't a tax, it is outright robbery.

Wages additionally would plummet, as there wouldn't be money for raises.

[L0oniX]

15. They would cut back on the yacht parties.

[rrneck]

16. I don't care.

They are stealing our money and it needs to stop.