The Fairer Marginal Tax Rate Principle

In 1986, the top 1% (ranked by AGI - Adjusted Gross Income) of individual U.S. income tax returns aggregated 11% of the total AGI of all individual returns. And the tax for the top 1% was 26% of the total tax. In 2008, the income of the top 1% doubled to 20% of all income, and the tax for the top 1% had grown by only half to 38%.

This suggests the Fairer Tax Marginal Rate Principle: For individuals with incomes exceeding $1 million (2011 dollars, adjusted for inflation), the marginal tax on income will be twice the share, for their income percentile, of total income for the previous tax year.

Source:
File 08in05tr.xls (retrieved 8 Oct. 2011 from
http://www.irs.gov/taxstats/indtaxstats/article/0,,id=133521,00.html).

(This article written by the pool in La Jolla, California.)