Highlights of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 include:

  • Lowered the top marginal individual income tax rate from 50 percent to 28 percent.
  • Lowered the corporate income tax rate from 46 percent to 34 percent.
  • Reduced the number of tax brackets from fourteen to two.
  • Increased the standard deduction and personal exemption amounts such that income earned in poverty faced no taxation.
  • Remains the most sweeping simplification of the modern history of the income tax.Photo of President Ronald Reagan Signing ATR's Petition in 1985

In this September 12, 1985 photo taken in Tampa, Florida, President Ronald Reagan signs an Americans for Tax Reform petition to the House Ways & Means Committee urging the passage of what became the Tax Reform Act of 1986.