Taxing the Titans: 30% Rate Returns to Tame the Wealth Gap

Image Source: The Daily Star

In a dramatic policy change, rich individuals will once more face a 30% tax rate as governments move to address growing public alarm over widening income inequality. The move, reminiscent of tax levels in previous decades, comes as compelling evidence indicates the increasing disparity in riches is eating into economic prospects and social cohesion.

Key Highlights
Back to Higher Top Tax Rates: President Donald Trump has signaled support for raising the top federal income tax rate from where it is now at 37% to 39.6% for the wealthiest Americans with incomes of $2.5 million or more annually. This would repeal a key provision of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which had cut the top rate temporarily.

Consolidation of Tax Brackets: Project 2025 supports simplification of the U.S. tax code to just two brackets, 15% and 30%. Although sold as a simplification, this would in fact raise taxes on middle-income earners, raising taxes on families with incomes from $30,000 to $120,000 and reducing rates on the very wealthy.

Global and Domestic Inequality Rises: The top 1% of Americans now earn nearly 139 times as much as the bottom 20%, recent research shows. If income inequality had remained at 1975 levels, the bottom 90% of employees would have earned an additional $3.9 trillion in 2023 alone.

Political Momentum Towards Redistribution: The proposed tax increases are part of a larger pattern, as policymakers around the world more and more consider more redistributive tax systems. Singapore, for example, just raised its top marginal personal income tax rate to 24% on earnings above S$1 million.

Effect on Social Programs: Income from increased top marginal tax rates is expected to be used to support essential programs such as Medicaid and tax credits for middle-class Americans, reducing fears that previous tax cuts have overwhelmingly gone to the rich.

Wider Impact of Inequality: Economists caution that even with major redistribution, the bottom 50% of the world will have only minor increases in income share by 2050 unless action is taken, as climate change risks adding to the inequalities.

While arguments continue to rage, the return of a 30% (or higher) top marginal tax rate is a watershifting moment in the war on inequality, with policymakers balancing economic growth, budget needs, and the necessity of a fairer society.

Source: CNBC, Center for American Progress, Channel News Asia, World Inequality Lab