There's a common misconception about progressive tax systems. I'm from the Netherlands, and we've got such a system like that.
But it's not true its quite common to pay over 50% taxes.
For example, here we got 4 tax-discs, where you pay taxes in a disc until a certain amount of money earned(profits).
Disc 1: until €19822,- : 36.50%
Disc 2: until €33589,- : 42.00%
Disc 3: until €57585,- : 42.00%
Disc 4: more €57585,- : 52.00%
That means, you have to pay 52% taxes over the amount you've earned more than €57585.
So in order to pay 50% taxes, one has to make about €300.000,- a year, (either income or profit).
those "discs" are per month?
anyway, my comment was on rich people, no real definition but say earning more than 1 mil eur/ear. If I understood your description correctly, they pay around/above 50% of taxes, right?
Rich people get their income typically as capital gains, and I expect the income brackets above are given for earned income, which is a different thing.
It is not really feasible to tax capital gains with a progressive system. You can make a small case for progressive taxes on capital gains by allowing a basic deduction, but the transaction cost of moving the capital gains somewhere else are generally quite small.
(Just for information, I live in a country from where people are leaving as tax refugees to Sweden).
But it's not true its quite common to pay over 50% taxes. For example, here we got 4 tax-discs, where you pay taxes in a disc until a certain amount of money earned(profits). Disc 1: until €19822,- : 36.50% Disc 2: until €33589,- : 42.00% Disc 3: until €57585,- : 42.00% Disc 4: more €57585,- : 52.00%
That means, you have to pay 52% taxes over the amount you've earned more than €57585.
So in order to pay 50% taxes, one has to make about €300.000,- a year, (either income or profit).