"In 1985, before the tax overhaul bill was passed, those with incomes between $30,00 and $40,000 paid combined federal income and Social Security taxes of $6,663. That was 19 percent of their income. In 1989, three years after "tax reform," they paid $6,177 or 17.6 percent. That amounted to a 7 percent cut in tax rates.
"By comparison, during that same period, those with incomes between $500,000 and $1 million saw their combined taxes fall from $243,506 to $168,714. That amounted to a 31 percent cut in tax rates-nearly five times the rate-cut for middle-class taxpayers."
As for corporate taxes:
"In February 1986, months before passage of the 1986 tax act, Congress estimated that corporate tax collections under existing law would amount to $410 billion from 1987 through 1990. The new tax law, which Congress sold as transferring taxes from individuals to corporations, resulted in actual corporate collections of $375 billion during the four years. Instead of generating $120 billion in new corporate tax revenue, the law produced $35 billion less than had been projected under the old law. . . In 1980, corporations accounted for 21 percent of total income taxes collected from individuals and corporations. In 1990, corporations accounted for 17 percent. That was down 4 percentage points. Not up."
(pp. 48-49)
I can't find my copy of America: Who Pays the Taxes. My recollection is that there is more recent (and more damning stuff) in there--specifically stuff about how the bill selectively closed some loopholes but opened up plenty of others.
John