Bernie Sanders Would Tax The Income Of The Wealthiest Americans At 90 Percent

I may be misinterpreting your statement, but I don't think you're making a valid counter argument. I believe Bernie is implying that the top 1% or 0.1% is a "handful" of people. And that handful has more than (or almost as much as) everyone else. And that seems a little unbalanced.

The part that makes this discussion limited to even fewer people is that MANY of those 1% and 0.1% receive their income through dividends and/or long term capital gains... neither of which are taxed at the income tax level we're discussing right now.

Furthermore, the people at that level of income are also usually in a position to determine (or at least negotiate) how they receive compensation... so I'm pretty sure they will just adjust their means of compensation to weight dividends and capital gains more heavily to sidestep an increase in income tax.

If you want to even the playing field (and piss a whole bunch of people off who don't fall in the top 1%), change the LTCG and dividends tax rates. Furthermore, there's no FICA on dividends, so not only are dividends taxed at 15% (20% above $400,000), they're also not taxed the 6.2% for FICA!

Source: I pay a lot in taxes, and my handful of friends in the top 1% don't pay the same proportional percentage of tax that I do thanks to techniques like 1031s, as well as lower taxes on LTCGs and dividends.

/r/economy Thread Parent Link - thinkprogress.org