Rangel Tax Hike Fact of the Day #8

Every day, Americans for Tax Reform will release a new fact about Charlie Rangel’s trillion-dollar tax hike.  All prior facts of the day can be found on www.atr.org.  Today’s fact is:

“The Rangel Tax Hike Will Raise the Top Marginal Tax Rate to 47%”

There’s an old adage that people willingly surrender their freedoms incrementally, even if the same loss of freedom all at once would cause a revolt.  Charlie Rangel hopes the same is true with taxes.

Under current law, the top marginal tax rate on entrepreneurs is an ungodly 37.9%.  Rangel wants to raise this rate by nearly ten full points.

How does he do it?  By eating the elephant one bite at a time:

  • Immediately impose a surtax of 4.6%
  • Wait for the Bush tax cuts to expire, which raises the rate another 4.6%
  • Make sure that all small businesses have to pay the 2.9% Medicare tax

Put all that together, and you have a top marginal tax rate of 47.1%.  That would be the highest marginal tax rate in over twenty years.

If you would like to schedule an interview with ATR President Grover Norquist or ATR Tax Policy Director Ryan Ellis to discuss the AMT, please contact John Kartch at 202-785-0266, or by email at [email protected].