When Income Was Taxed at 94%: How FDR Tackled Debt and Reckless Republicans

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Franklin Roosevelt didn't hesitate to raise taxes and show up Republicans who stood in the way of fiscal responsibility. Roosevelt said, “no American citizen ought to have a net income, after he has paid his taxes, of more than $25,000 a year.” ($350,000 today.) The year before, steel exec Eugene Grace had grabbed $522,537 (over $8 million today) in 1941 salary. By the war’s end, America’s wealthy would be paying taxes on income over $200,000 at a 94 percent statutory rate. In 2007, by contrast, America’s 400 highest earners paid just 18.1 percent of their total incomes, after loopholes, in federal taxes.