Class Warfare 1988-2005 over Top Individual Income Tax Rates: Teeter-Totter from Soak-the-Rich to Robin-Hood-in-Reverse

Authors

John W. Lee III

Abstract

The Tax Reform Act of 1986 effected for highest income individuals parity of tax treatment as to ordinary and capital gains income, thus ending the sixty-five year horizontal and vertical inequities described in "The Capital Gains 'Sieve' and the 'Farce' of Progressivity 1921-1986," 1 Hastings Bus. L. J. 1. This article examines the income tax rate wars 1988-2005, which destroyed this parity. During this latter period, political factions developed "fairness" rhetoric and "class warfare" counter rhetoric. This article analyses the cause and effects of the changes to the tax law from 1988-2005.

Recommended Citation

John W. Lee III, Class Warfare 1988-2005 over Top Individual Income Tax Rates: Teeter-Totter from Soak-the-Rich to Robin-Hood-in-Reverse, 2 Hastings Bus. L.J. 47 (2006).
Available at: https://repository.uclawsf.edu/hastings_business_law_journal/vol2/iss1/2