In order to shift some of the financial burden from those least able to bear it onto the shoulders of the wealthy, the Revenue Act offset high tariffs with a
progressive income tax that effectively largely exempted the poorest Americans.
But we now pay a
progressive income tax on our entire income, just like a person who makes money from speculation for example .
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (2012) found that Ireland had the second most
progressive income tax system among its member countries in 2011 and the most progressive among the EU Member States (see also the Department of Finance (2013) document on the distributional aspects of recent budgets in response to the crisis).
While one of "society's most important weapons against economic inequality is the
progressive income tax," according to Shiller, "the income-tax system has never been designed with the express objective of managing inequality.
Rick Perry will engage in some political one-upmanship Tuesday when he delivers a campaign speech in South Carolina announcing his support for a "flat tax" to replace the nation's complex and much- criticized
progressive income tax system.
2) This essay will make the case that the
progressive income tax is plainly inequitable.
To level the playing field and stimulate the market, serious reforms are needed, including a more
progressive income tax, "reverse tax" subsidies for lower-income workers, and heavy investments in healthcare and education.
Prioritising tax avoidance and evasion, a
progressive income tax and curbing obscene salaries and bonuses in the private sector which way exceed those in the public sector - together with real efficiency savings rather than cutting essential services - should be the way forward.
1915) explores the systems of reason and rhetoric that groups and interests devise in order to obtain a distribution of the
progressive income tax that is responsive to their pecuniary desires.
But see Lawrence Zelenak, The Sometimes-Taxation of the Returns to Risk-Bearing Under a
Progressive Income Tax, 59 SMU L.
This, at least, suggests that a
progressive income tax should be found wanting on the ground of efficiency because it will create a large distortion relative to the amount of tax collected.
A proportional tax with a rate of 10 percent would yield the same revenue as the present
progressive income tax.
