The Romney Tax Plan

Funny stuff. www.romneytaxplan.com

Thats awesome. LOL

lol.


the thing I don't get is the republican party always asking for tax cuts. More tax cuts. more tax cuts. the economy during George W. Bush's administration wasn't great with his cuts (even before the financial crisis).

Lets look at the US's top marginal tax rate.


1946-1963. 87% up to 92% with it at 91% at the end.
1964 to 1981-77% down to 69.13%

1982-1986-50%
1987-38.5
1988 and 1989-28%
1990-1992-31%
1993-2000-39.6%
2001-2002-38.6%
2003-2012-35%

when people scream that those in the top marginal bracket are overtaxed, it depends on your perspective, but in historical terms they don't appear to be.

long-term capital gains rate

1922-1933-12.5%
1934-1935-17.7%
1938-1941-15.0%

any period up to 1980 other than those listed- above 20%, basically mid 20s to mid 30s.

For most of the period capital gains were at a lower rate than the top marginal income tax rate.

But why are they 15% now. Is there some great economic reason that long-term capital gains should be taxed at 15%, when income can be taxed at 35%????

the top 0.1% earn more than 1/2 of all capital gains. I don't know the figure for the top 5% overall but I'd guess they end up receiving almost all of the capital gains seen in the U.S.


I am only 35 years old. If I were 55 and had been older in the 1970s and early 1980s, I would have said that the top income tax rates seem a bit high. But for anyone to argue that the top income tax and capital gains tax needs to be lowered now, then they are believing that GOVERNMENT IS AN EVIL AND NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED.

Republicans say if you lower rates, revenue will increase. That is a great argument. WHEN THE TOP INCOME TAX RATES WERE 90% or 70% and capital gains were 35%!!!! But when the rates are 35%for income tax and 15%, when does it end??????

Second point- people argue that raising taxes on those over 250,000 would hurt small businesses. That is fine. I agree raising taxes on people that run small businesses could affect the number of people hired.

If your taxable income is $400,000 and run what is still considered a small business, and if your rates go up by 3-4%, then maybe that extra 12,000-16,000 could be the difference in a new person being hired, or hiring someone part-time versus full-time, etc...

But when does a small business end???? I don't see how a business with 20 employees where the sole owner makes 400,000 is that similar to a business with 90 employees where the sole owner makes 1.5 million. Those are big differences.

There needs to be additional brackets. Fine. Don't raise taxes on someone making 250,000-450,000. But add 1% on those from 450,000 to 750,000. Another 1% on 750,000 to 1,250,000. Another 1% on those making 1,750,000. Another 1.5% on those above 5,000,000. Then we will have not placed additional taxes on those that are small businesses.

So basically the absolutely super rich would have the Clinton tax rates.