Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Who Was the Greatest Tax Cutter of Them All?

After reading Do Tax Cuts Ever Increase Government Revenues? my nominee is Andrew Mellon:
[B]ack in the 1920s, Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon pushed Congress to enact a series of tax cuts. The U.S. dropped the top marginal income-tax rate from 73 percent to 25 percent. Tax receipts from the wealthiest Americans rose. According to Treasury data, income taxes paid by Americans making more than $100,000 per year increased from $302 million to $714 million between 1922 and 1928, with the rich's share of income taxes paid rising from 35 to 61 percent.
For good measure Mellon gave us the National Gallery of Art. Also, he told us how to be classy investors:

"Gentlemen prefer bonds."

No comments: