While I'm glad that AOC's proposal has gotten people to seriously talk about raising taxes on the higher brackets, the 70% figure that everyone is fixating on is a little misleading. I mean, her 70% rate would apply to taxable income over $10 million. Does anyone in the country get a salary of $10 million per year? People who make that much money mostly get it through capital gains, which are not taxed like regular income is. Even if her high bracket tax were passed right now, I really wonder if there would be any actual person who would pay the 70% rate.
For example, according to this list from two years ago, the highest paid executive in the U.S. the prior year (2016) was Marc Lore of Walmart. While Lore's total compensation was almost $237 million, his salary was only $346,154 per year, with a $1.055 million bonus (the rest was almost entirely "acquisition awards" which seem to be capital gains realized from Walmart's acquisition of Jet.com). I may be wrong, but I don't think that Lore would have met the $10 million threshold for the 70% bracket.
For example, according to this list from two years ago, the highest paid executive in the U.S. the prior year (2016) was Marc Lore of Walmart. While Lore's total compensation was almost $237 million, his salary was only $346,154 per year, with a $1.055 million bonus (the rest was almost entirely "acquisition awards" which seem to be capital gains realized from Walmart's acquisition of Jet.com). I may be wrong, but I don't think that Lore would have met the $10 million threshold for the 70% bracket.
