In the 1950s and early 1960s the top tax rate — on taxable incomes over $400,000 — was 91%.
Ninety. One.
[Caveat: $400,000 in 1960 dollars would be about $3 million in 2009 dollars.]
The Revenue Act of 1964 reduced the top rate to 70%.
Today’s top rate is 35%.
The rate for death is still 100%.
The title of this post is a quotation attributed to Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.