Guest Author
Most Americans had one of two reactions on the recent 36th anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley.
Many immediately recalled exactly where they were in 1977 when they heard the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll had died.
Other people immediately said, “Who’s Elvis Presley?” These would be people under age 50.
Well, not only was he a great singer, but Elvis also was a great taxpayer, something most corporations consider positively un-American these days.
And Elvis is still bringing in tax revenue; he’s one of the top dead performers when it comes to sales of records and other memorabilia purchased by folks who recall “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Love Me Tender” and other hits he sang before bad living killed him in his early 40s.
Elvis had the challenge of making big bucks when income tax rates were much higher than they are today, according to forbes.com.
If you think you pay too much in taxes now, be glad you weren’t around in 1935, when Elvis was born. The top tax bracket then was 63 percent; the cutoff point was $1 million, which would be $17 million in today’s dollars, according to forbes.com.
In World War II, desperate for money, the government understandably raised the income tax rate to 94 percent. By comparison, the United States has conducted not one but two wars — in Iraq and Afghanistan — without raising taxes at all. Instead, we finance our wars with the equivalent of a credit card.
Rates stayed at 90 percent through the 1950s, prompting Elvis’ manager, “Colonel” Tom Parker, to reportedly say, “I consider it my patriotic duty to keep Elvis up in the 90 percent tax bracket.”
Cynics, however, speculate that Parker was the devil in disguise. They said Parker was trying to keep the Internal Revenue Service off his back because he was in the United States illegally from the Netherlands. Parker never applied for legal immigrant status in the good old U.S. of A, although the streets here were almost literally paved with gold records for him and Elvis.
Parker also wasn’t a real-live colonel; he convinced a Louisiana governor to give him the title.
In any event, as forbes.com notes, maximum income tax rates stayed at the 90 percent rate until 1964, when they dropped to 77 percent. By 1982 they were 50 percent; by comparison, the top tax bracket for this year is 39.6 percent, beginning at $400,000.
And yet the Tea Party has only begun to squawk about tax rates in the last few years. Where were the Tea Party members when Uncle Sam was being cruel to Elvis? Oh yeah, they were dancing to his music.
Elvis didn’t get all shook up about taxes. When he died, he had $5 million in the bank — the equivalent of $20 million today — plus his Graceland mansion. Forbes.com said his estate was $55 million.
Still, consider the irony. So many Tea Party members loved and bought the music of Elvis Presley, who accumulated millions of dollars despite humongous tax rates. And his manager was an illegal immigrant.
It should make the Tea Party sing the blues.
Mark O’Brien was driving on Interstate 85 near the Shallowford Road exit in Atlanta when he first heard that Elvis had died.
