The fundamental question here would be "why?". Is there an innate reason the government should be concerned with high earners? Just because? That's spread-the-wealth mentality. Top earners already pay a disproportionate amount of taxes in our supposed equal system, Here's a better idea: Tax EVERYONE at n%. Wouldn't that be more in line with our values?

>>I've heard that the VAT idea is something Rahm Emmanuel's brother came up with and not endorsed by the administration, to be fair. OTOH it's clear that Obama's current spending proclivities are not sustainable by the present income model. Something has to give. I suspect that it'll start with the stereotypical Dem class warfare scree against the "wealthy" and the top earners will get hosed by all sorts of new taxes.
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>One of the things I've read (not from the government, but as a discussion item elsewhere) is the point that we really do need a much higher top tax bracket, what the author called a "millionaire's bracket." Right now, the cut-off for the top bracket is not all that high. Here's the piece I read:
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>http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/03/missing-1000000-tax-bracket.html
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>Tamar