The top-bracket federal tax rate has climbed since 1988 and, what with fiscal pressures from Medicare and the military, it may be higher still in 15 or 30 years.

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Mr Padoa-Schioppa's first budget raised the top income-tax bracket to 43%.

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Politicians in Annapolis created a millionaire tax bracket, raising the top marginal income-tax rate to 6.25%.

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That means a top-bracket player owes a federal tax of 23% on winning trades.

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Many respondents said they were below the top tax bracket, held their investments mostly in tax-deferred accounts or were long-term investors.

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In the top federal tax bracket, that plum-looking yield shrinks to around 5%.

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In a country of 1.2 billion people, a country where years of staggering economic growth annually create tens of thousands of new millionaires and a recent slowdown has done little damage to a thriving luxury goods market, far less than one ten-thousandth of the population admits they are in the top tax bracket.

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These tax hikes would be so big, in fact, that top-bracket taxpayers might end up paying a rate of 67 percent on ordinary income and nearly 50 percent on capital gains.

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On top of that there will be (for high-bracket savers) a 3.8% investment tax surcharge plus a clawback of deductions that effectively adds 1.2 percentage points to the stated tax rate.

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