Year Median Millionaire or Top 1% 1948 5.3% 76.9% 1955 9.1 85.5 1960 12.4 85.5 1965 11.6 66.9 1970 16.1 68.6 1975 20.0 -- 1977 -- 35.5 1980 23.7 31.7 1985 24.4 24.9 1989 24.4 26.7
Total Effective Tax Rates for All Families (Federal Income and Payroll Taxes)2 Quintile 1980 1985 1990 % change 1980-90 Lowest 20% 8.4% 10.6 9.7 16.1% Second 20% 15.7 16.1 16.7 6.0 Third 20% 20.0 19.3 20.3 1.2 Fourth 20% 23.0 21.7 22.5 -2.2 Highest 20% 27.3 24.0 25.8 -5.5 Top 1% 31.8 24.9 27.2 -14.4
The above chart shows that tax rates were cut for the rich and raised on the poor. Some supply-siders object to the inclusion of payroll taxes (Social Security and Medicare) in the above chart. For answers to these objections, see More.
Meanwhile, federal government has been shifting more of the tax
burden to state and local governments:
Total Tax Collections (In Billions of Constant Dollars, 82-84 CPI)3
1982 1990 Federal Income Tax $308 341 State and Local Taxes 275 374
And after all the deductions and loopholes are taken into account,
state and local taxes are regressive, not progressive.
The Rise of Regressive State and Local Taxes
(Percentage of Average Families' Incomes Spent on State and Local Taxes)4
Quintile 1985 1990 Lowest 20% 12.6% 13.8 Second 20% 10.0 10.9 Middle 20% 9.1 10.0 Fourth 20% 8.6 9.5 Next 15% 8.4 9.2 Next 4% 8.2 8.7 Top 1% 7.1 7.6
The following chart shows how the tax burden has been shifted over
the years. Notice that the steepest drops are in corporate and excise/estate
taxes, while payroll taxes have nearly tripled:
Source of funds for Federal Spending5
Personal Corporate Payroll Excise/ Decade Income Tax Income Tax Tax Estate Borrowing 1950s 42.0% 26.9% 11.5% 17.2% 2.5% 1960s 42.0 20.4 18.4 14.9 4.4 1970s 40.3 13.3 27.7 11.3 11.1 1980s 38.0 7.7 29.2 8.2 17.7
Corporate tax cuts matter because the liberated profits enable companies
to pay the exploding CEO salaries and benefits that we saw in the
previous section.
Quite often, corporations and individuals pay even less than the official
tax rate. The secret is to lobby Congress for exemptions. From 1979 to
1986, AT&T contributed nearly $1.4 million to Congressional candidates,
most of them incumbents. Although the company made nearly $25 billion in
profits from 1982 to 1985, it didn't pay a single penny in taxes - in fact,
it got a tax rebate of $635 million.6
In 1989, Citizens for Tax Justice researched 44 major American companies.
Despite collective profits of $53.6 billion, all 44 paid no federal taxes.
(And all had reduced their capital spending and laid off part of their
work forces. The profits from this went to higher stock dividends, an average
CEO pay increase of 54 percent, and funding for corporate mergers
and takeovers.)
The 1986 Tax "Reform" Act was a lobbyist endeavor from the
start. Although the Act cut taxes on all income groups, it also closed
loopholes -- essentially giving with one hand while taking with the other.
But the real story of the 1986 Tax "Reform" Act became all the
corporate tax exemptions written into the law, often in language so convoluted
and arcane that not even trained tax lawyers could identify the beneficiary.
One of the few decryptable examples gave a tax break to an unidentified
"taxpayer who incorporated on Sept. 7, 1978, which is engaged in the
business of manufacturing dolls and accessories." In plain English,
this loophole should have read: "We hereby give Xavier Roberts, the
inventor of Cabbage Patch dolls, a personal tax break of $6 million."7
Countless hundreds of these anonymous exemptions were lobbied into the
law.
The following chart gives the size of the tax cuts after 1986. Keep
in mind that these represent the official tax rates, and do not account
for exemptions and loopholes which were closed for the middle class but
increased for the rich.
Comparative Benefits of the Tax "Reform" Act of 19868
Income Bracket Size of Tax Cut Tax Savings per return Under $10,000 11% $37 10,000 - 20,000 6 69 20,000 - 30,000 11 300 30,000 - 40,000 11 467 40,000 - 50,000 16 1,000 50,000 - 75,000 16 1,523 75,000 - 100,000 18 3,034 100,000 - 200,000 22 7,203 200,000 - 500,000 27 24,603 500,000 - 1 million 34 86,084 Over $1 million 31 281,033
Publicly, Congress touted the 1986 Tax "Reform" Act as
a way to make millionaires pay their fair share of taxes. One of their
methods was raising the alternative minimum tax on the wealthy. If millionaires
somehow used loopholes to pay little or no taxes, then they would be hit
by the minimum tax. Representative Marty Russo, an architect of the minimum
tax, said: "I take particular pride when I hear my colleagues...
say that this bill has the toughest minimum tax they have ever seen. It
makes sure everbody pays a fair share."
In reality, the minimum tax was a fraud. After 1986, fewer rich paid
the minimum tax...9
Taxpayers Taxpayers Income in 1986 in 1989 Down $100,000 - 200,000 126,127 29,195 -77% 200,000 - 500,000 46,874 14,112 -70% 500,000 - 1 million 10,428 4,176 -60% Over $1 million 15,259 2,361 -85%
And they paid less...10
Avg. tax Avg. tax Income paid in 1986 paid in 1989 Down $100,000 - 200,000 $10,295 $4,561 -56% 200,000 - 500,000 23,237 9,307 -61% 500,000 - 1 million 45,218 20,694 -54% Over $1 million 116,395 54,758 -53%
But could this have been the result of more wealthy people paying the higher regular rates? In the case of the lesser wealthy, sometimes; but in the case of millionaires, no. Of the remaining millionaires who did not pay the minimum tax between 1986 and 1989, the average tax bill fell 27 percent, from $864,068 to $634,196.11 And keep in mind these were the peak years of skyrocketing incomes.
Over the whole decade, from 1980 to 1989, the tax bill of those who made over $1 million a year fell from $980,869 to $634,196 -- a tax cut of 35 percent.11
Despite falling individual tax bills, the rich as a group paid a larger percentage of total federal tax collections in the 80s. That is because the group itself was rapidly expanding. Between 1980 and 1989, the number of people reporting annual incomes of $500,000 or more skyrocketed from 16,881 to 183,240 -- a tenfold increase. In 1980, this group paid $8.1 billion in taxes, or 3 percent of all federal income tax collections. By 1989, they paid $59.4 billion, or 14 percent of the total. 12
Supply-siders often raise this point in their debates, as "proof" that tax cuts actually shifted the tax burden upward. But a few statistics kill this argument. The 183,240 people who reported half-million dollar incomes in 1989 still represented less than one-fifth of the richest 1 percent! Although we should be glad that the ranks of the rich grew, this growth occurred in far too small a group to benefit most Americans. Meanwhile, middle class income stagnated or fell as most of the income gains went to the rich. The top 1 percent increased their share of the national income from about 8 to 12-13 percent in the 80s, an increase of 50 percent. Likewise, their share of all federal taxes paid grew from 18 to 27 percent, also an increase of 50 percent.13 (This would have been even higher had their taxes not been cut.) In short, the rich paid more taxes because they made more; the poor paid less taxes because they made less.
Many supply-siders defend tax cuts for the
rich on the basis that the rich pay more taxes in absolute dollars, even
at reduced rates. This argument ultimately loses sight of the real issue: massive tax cuts
on the rich have fueled growing inequality of wealth and income, as the
statistics in the previous section show. What is indisputable is that as
our tax system has grown less progressive, and even turned regressive in
some cases, middle class growth has stalled while the poor have actually
lost ground.
Next Section: Budgets and Deficits
Return to The Reagan Years
Home Page
___________________
1 The data in the median column
originates as follows: the 1948 figure comes from The Statistical History
of the United States, 1976; the figures for 1955 to 1983 come from
Alan Lerman of the U.S. Department of the Treasury Office of Tax Analysis.
The calculations after 1983 come from Eugene Steuerle and John Bakija,
Right Ways and Wrong Ways to Reform Social Security (Washington,
D.C.: Urban Institute Press, 1993). Figures from the millionaire column
for 1948 to 1970 represent the effective tax rates for those earning $1
million a year and come from the U.S. Treasury Department unpublished data
set forth on page 1112 of The Statistical History of the United States,
1976. FICA is not included, but the rates would not be affected by
a percentage point. The rates from 1977 onward are for the top 1% of families
as computed by the Congressional Budget Office tax simulation model and
include all federal taxes. Source: the 1992 Greenbook of the House Ways
and Means Committee, p. 1510. The effective rate on millionaires would
be close to the rate on the top 1 percent.
2 CBO, Congressional Study: Tax Progressivity
and Income Distribution. March 26, 1990. CIS#H782-11.
3 1991 Handbook, Advisory Commission
on Intergovernmental Relations, pp. 122-30.
4 A Far Cry From Fair, Citizens
for Tax Justice, April 1991, p.18
5 Robert J. Shapiro, "Paying for
Progress," Progressive Policy Institute, February 1991. Calculations
derived by the author from Budget of the United States Government,
fiscal year 1991, "Historical Tables," Tables 1.1 and 2.2.
6 Philip Stern, The Best Congress
Money Can Buy, (New York: Pantheon, 1988) p. 13.
7 Laura Saunders, "Personalized
Taxes," Forbes, June 1, 1987, p. 84.
8 Internal Revenue Service, cited by
Philadelphia Enquirer, October 21, 1991.
9 Ibid.
10 Ibid.
11 Internal Revenue Service, cited
by Donald Barlett and James Steele, America: What Went Wrong? (Kansas
City: Andrews and McMeel, 1992), p. 7.
12Ibid, pp.4-5.
13 Kevin Phillips, Boiling Point
(New York: HarperCollins, 1993), p. 112.