So how does Mr. Buffett arrive at such a low personal tax rate?
From the 1950s through the 1970s, for example, Britain was burdened with onerous taxes--the top personal tax rate hit 98%.
First, the top marginal personal tax rate rises to 39.6% from 35% as the Bush tax cuts expire at the end of 2012.
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The good news: Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is abolishing the corporate capital gains tax and cutting the top personal income tax rate by 15%.
The good news: Chancellor Gerhard Schrder is abolishing the corporate capital gains tax and cutting the top personal income tax rate by 15%.
For example, the Tax Reform Act of 1986 reduced the top personal income tax rate to 28% from 50%, and collapsed the number of tax brackets to 4 from 15 while leaving projected revenues unchanged.
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That and the president's tax policies give the moneyed class some disquiet. (The corporate rate is 38.5%, the highest personal income tax rate 35%.) But business owners are counting their blessings.
Schrder is also reducing taxes on profits and cutting the top personal income tax rate by 15%.
The plan envisions that the top personal income tax rate will fall to no higher than 29 percent.
The highest personal income tax rate is 10.55%, a real killer for small businesses, most of which pay the personal income tax.
Raising your personal income tax rate on dividend and capital gain income to 30 percent increases your effective tax rate to 45.3 percent.
The actor, described by Mr Putin as a friend, has developed close ties with Russia, which has a flat 13% personal income tax rate.
While the top personal income tax rate in California is now 10.55%, even the average income earner pays a marginal income tax rate on the next dollar earned of 9.3%.
One important element of that legislation was that the personal marginal income tax rate structure would return to its 2000 level on January 1, 2011.
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Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback signed into law legislation slashing the state's highest personal income-tax rate to 4.9% from 6.45%, and says his ultimate goal is to eliminate the income tax.
The GOP Jobs Plan also includes reducing the top personal, individual income tax rate to 25% as well, in return for closing loopholes.
Corporate tax rates are now above top personal tax rates, so having a low tax rate on dividends and capital gains could make sense.
Over the next five years, its top rate of personal income tax is to be cut from 53% to 42%, while the corporate-tax rate will be slashed from 40% to 25%, well below America's 41%.
He has advocated a simple two-rate personal income tax system, under which individual taxpayers could fill out their returns on a single sheet of paper.
This caps at 50% the overall tax rate on all personal income.
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Federal personal income tax revenues grew at an annual rate of over 8% from 1921-1928.
Even more irritating, to some, are the recent increase in the top rate of personal-income tax, adjustments to tax relief on pension contributions and a one-off 50% tax on bonuses.
Romney proposes revenue neutral tax reform that would lower all personal income tax rates by 20%, and reduce the corporate tax rate to 25% from 35%.
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Any investments you make into a personal pension are eligible for tax relief at your highest rate of tax, subject to limits.
But what emerged was a clear improvement of the tax code, with a top statutory personal income rate of 28 percent and the doubling of the standard deduction.
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Effective January 2013, Slovakia, with a 19% flat income tax system, raised its corporate tax rate to 23%, and introduced a second 25% tax bracket for higher personal incomes.
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