Taxes

[discocrisco01]

What would happened if we back to the tax rates of the 1950s?

[Yupster]

1. You gonna bring back all the deductions too?

Then it wouldn't make any difference.

There were many more deductions and credits you could take back then, deducting car payment interest just to name one.

There were also tax crediit investments that investors took. I had one where you could over 7-10 years credit three times what you invested as tax credits.

All these things were eliminated in 1986 when the rates went down.

People who talk about 70 % to 90 % tax rates sometimes know that no one ever paid those rates back then. Sometimes they don't know.

[palm_to_forehead]

2. That's a popular idea of those who just look at a table of statistics.

But it's an example of the overall ignorance regarding the tax code. The tax breaks of the 1950s put anything we pretend are bad now to shame.

Just as small example, back in those days rich ranchers around here would buy and sell cattle worth no more than $100 for tens of thousands of dollars to rack up tax deductions.

As a percentage of GDP, we bring in more in taxes now than we did at that time.

Capital gains is where people should be focusing the efforts to raise tax revenue. It's where the truly wealthy (as opposed to business owners who work their asses off) get most of their income and it's only taxed at 15%.