The US tax rate is hardly lower… if you live in San Francisco and are in the top bracket, you pay 50%+ tax rate if you don't make an effort to minimize (aka dodge) your exposure.
In what universe is 50% not less than 70%? In what universe in America is anyone being taxed at 70% right now?
Even more so, an the relative difference of |70% - 50%| / |%50| = 40% is gigantic. A very misleading statement.
And so many of those benefit from getting access to capital gains instead if they get stock which many who are in the top bracket do.
Could you cite a source on that? I'm not aware of any income tax bracket over 39.6%
Don't forget state income tax. In California this tops out around 12% or so. State + federal adds up to over 50% total.
Being in the 50% tax bracket does not mean paying 50% of your income in taxes.
The people engaging in significant tax avoidance aren't the ones who make $1 more than the threshold for the highest tax bracket, they're the people (and corporations) who make many millions or billions of dollars and would otherwise have an effective tax rate that has converged to the highest marginal rate.