Do you know what the top marginal income tax rate was under Republican President Dwight D Eisenhower?

@pdqsailor1 And I wouldnt agree with that on the basis that it destroys incentive.. Lets say 70 to 75% maximum..Equally, double taxation is wrong. If you live off the dividends of companies and those companies pay tax, your tax should be discounted to account for this.😷

@whowasthatmaskedman The issue of double taxation is dealt with in Canada for instance with a dividend tax credit that takes into account the corporate taxes paid.. Eisenhower was not looking at incentive he was looking at what a person was entitled to and he felt there were limits ... this did not stop their often owned corporations from retaining those earnings in the corporation and becoming more valuable - increasing the value of their shares.. it simply said from a personal perspective.. there is a limit to what a person needs or should earn.. Remember this never affected employees - it affected owners of large businesses..... and of course they got round it by paying every family member a salary to dramatically increase available personal income.. Make a rule - a tax lawyer and a tax accountant will drill holes in it...

@pdqsailor1 I understand Eisenhowers thinking.. But the retention of earning just to avoid tax is precisely why you cant tax that high. In the end it destroys incentive to achieve.. This is the primarly thing that makes Capitalism work. It makes use of the greed of people. You have to allow them to keep enough, so that there is incentive to earn..Even now there is a booming tax avoidance industry.. Greed will always find a way..😷

@BizSuitStacy I’d say the top income in 1912 was considerably less than what it is in 2023

@justanothername it was 0%. There was no institutional federal income tax prior to 1913. Lincoln flirted with them as Revenue Acts in the 1860s to pay for the civil war. It stopped between 1872 and 1912, with a one year exception in 1894.
The Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act of 1894 was controversial and the supreme court ruled all income taxes were unconstitutional until the 16th amendment was ratified. Tax rates were very low until 1917, when the top marginal rate hit 67%.