Higher Top Tax Rate Will Slow Economic Performance
April 6, 2011
A new study from the Adam Smith Institute in the United Kingdom provides overwhelming evidence that class-warfare tax policy is grossly misguided and self-destructive, says Daniel J. Mitchell, a senior fellow with the Cato Institute.
- The authors examine the likely impact of the 10-percentage point increase in the top income tax rate, which was imposed as an election-year stunt by formerprime minister Gordon Brown and then kept in place by his successor, David Cameron.
- They find that boosting the top tax rate to 50 percent will slow economic performance.
- And because of both macroeconomic and microeconomic responses, tax revenues over the next 10 years are likely to drop by the equivalent of more than $550 billion.
President Obama wants to impose similar policies in the United States and there is every reason to expect similarly poor results, says Mitchell.
Source: Daniel J. Mitchell, "A Victory for the Laffer Curve, a Defeat for England's Economy," Cato-at-Liberty.org, April 4, 2011.
For text:
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/a-victory-for-the-laffer-curve-a-defeat-for-englands-economy/
For study:
http://adamsmith.org/files/tax-paper-final%281%29.pdf
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