Both of mookie's charts are meaningless. Top MARGINAL rates don't matter in the least, and are in fact impossible to compare over time. How can you compare a tax code with a 70% top marginal rate, and a billion loopholes, with a top marginal rate of 39%, and only a half a million loopholes? You cannot.
No one actually payed the top rates back in the day, just like John Kerry didn't pay anything like 39% when he ran for President, that year he paid ~15%. They had huge top rates because they knew no one was going to actually pay them.
If you look at tax revenues by year, you'll see that they remain remarkably constant, regardless of what the marginal rates do. That's because changes always have the effective rates remain about the same.
US corporate tax rates are really high, but have loopholes. In addition, corporations move assets offshore to avoid the tax because it's cheaper than paying. LOwer corporate rates, with fewer loopholes increase revenues, typically.
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"Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one." — Thomas Paine
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