Look at these fucking top marginal tax rates in a historical context

Visual Economics offers a great chart featuring the history of the top marginal tax rate:

Green line is the top marginal rate for married couples filing jointly (most years dividends were tax like ordinary income until 2003), orange is the top rate for income from capital gains. The top corporate tax rate is included for comparison. Your marginal tax rate is the rate you pay on the “last dollar” you earn; but when you view the taxes you paid as a percentage of your income, your effective tax rate is less than your marginal rate, especially after you take into account the deductions and exemptions, i.e. income that is not subject to any tax.

Something really interesting:

The Wealth Tax Act of 1935, applied the top rate to income over $5 million and had only a single taxpayer: John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

Related posts:

1. Tax cuts don’t create jobs
2. Visualizing the Global Tax Burden
3. Tax rates, visualized