LA Times - ‘Buffett Rule’ a bust in California
In California, we’ve got what you could call a Buffett Rule-Plus. There’s an extra tax bracket — at 10.3% — for income exceeding $1million.
According to the state finance department, families with adjusted gross incomes of between $1 million and $2 million, on average, paid an overall state tax rate of 8.4% in 2008, the last year for which data are available. The average rate rose as incomes did to 9.3% for those earning $5 million and up. (There were 3,757 of them.)
Families earning between $200,000 and $300,000 paid, on average, 5.5%. The rate fell sharply as incomes tailed off: 1.4% at $70,000 to $80,000, and only 0.2% at $40,000 to $50,000.