[SovietDissident]

If someone were very rich in NYC, between federal, state, local, sales taxes, etc. they would pay ~60% of their income in taxes. Now, many of them pay capital gains, have wealth managers who set up different financial vehicles, and whatnot. But this is exactly the point: individuals will pay as little tax as possible, and the rich spend more money than most getting around these punitive taxes. Further, it should be noted that the wealthy are the most mobile; if they don't like tax policy in a certain country, they will move their assets off-shore (see the original article). What I'm saying is that on a "practical" level, these high taxes don't work! (Hence the consistency in the tax revenue coming in per year despite tax levels, as I cited.) You're better off having lower taxes and actually having the rich pay them.

Practically speaking, high taxes are not an effective way to tax the wealthy, but they are an effective way to send capital overseas. If you want another example, look at the $2.1 trillion in U.S. corporate cash being held abroad, which hasn't been repatriated because companies refuse to pay the high U.S. corporate taxes, and use it to buy foreign companies/assets like Minecraft for a couple billion instead.[0]

[0] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-04/u-s-compan...