Yes what I meant is the rate should not stop increasing at such a low amount. In fact the hundreds of billions do not pay the rate because of the way we tax work higher than returns and because social security and medicare have a max point. Basically the folks paying the highest rate are the folks that make it to that highest rate for what is still a common profession like doctors and lawyers. After that its escape velocity for taxes.
lmmarsano@lemmynsfw.com 21 hours ago
That makes more sense.
Long-term capital gains are taxed significantly less than ordinary income: that’s partly to incentivize stabler markets by rewarding long-term investments over short-term market timing activity.
The annual ceiling on contributions to social security is bullshit & needs to be eliminated. However, there’s no such ceiling for medicare:
Have you looked at the taxable income distribution/quantiles? The top marginal tax rate seems to begin somewhere between the minimum adjusted gross income (AGI) for the top 1% & 2%. < 1% have an AGI over $1M. We’re talking about increasing marginal rates for the top fractions of a percent here. While that increases federal revenues, it’s unclear that will boost revenues as much as we need.
For example, the Social Security administration publishes annual reports on solvency proposals with summaries. Eliminating that taxable maximum alone won’t save social security. Increasing the payroll tax rate, however, will definitely save it. It’d help to know the effect of taxing all taxable income.
Keeping programs solvent might require increasing taxes on the bulk or a more significant part of the population.
HubertManne@piefed.social 16 hours ago
Im fine with long term capital gains being less than short term capital gains but not less than ordinary income. a 1% transaction tax could drop short term timing more effectively. What you say at the end for social security is another reason regular income tax needs to be very low at the low end.