Taxes on the Rich Were Not Much Higher in the 1950s

Taxes on the Rich Were Not That Much Higher in the 1950s

Average Effective Tax Rate on the Top 1 Percent of U.S. Households taxes on the rich taxing the rich

The top 1 percent of Americans today do not face an unusually low tax burden, by historical standards. In the 1950s, when the top marginal income tax rate reached 92 percent, the top 1 percent of taxpayers paid an effective rate of only 16.9 percent.