According to the Wikipedia page some studies indicate that the maximum for the laffer curve in Sweden was about 70% tax.
On the other hand, the introduction of a 50% income tax rate in the UK didn't work very well[1]. It caused more than £10B of income to be shifted to an earlier year, and in the end raised only a modest fraction of the predicted extra tax revenues. It looks like a few people in government failed to notice that almost everyone who has enough income to pay that kind of tax rate in the first place also has the ability to choose when they formally realize that income, and many of the wealthiest also have the ability to choose where they formally receive the income as well.
The newish top tax rate here is coming down to 45% in April 2013, after the new government finished figuring out how much of a poison chalice they had been left by the previous one. Unfortunately, this causes problems of its own, as they are now predicting a multi-billion pound shortfall in tax revenues for 2012-2013 as wealthy folk do the opposite and defer their income to take advantage of the reduced rate. Obviously they're hoping that greater tax revenues in later years will make up for that.
Worse than these individual disruptions over a relatively short period, though, is the fact that successive governments have made it very clear that they can and will mess around significantly with tax rates for high earners, which in turn creates an incentive for any big earner to talk to tax experts and either take part in legal tax avoidance schemes or at least minimise how much income they wind up with on paper in any given year until they're convinced that it's the most tax-efficient time for a while to take it and then grab the lot at (what they hope will be) a minimum rate.
At least we're not in France, where the government seem to think they can slap a 75% tax rate on the wealthy and not suffer horrendous consequences to their already business-hostile economic and political landscape...
On the other hand, the introduction of a 50% income tax rate in the UK didn't work very well[1]. It caused more than £10B of income to be shifted to an earlier year, and in the end raised only a modest fraction of the predicted extra tax revenues. It looks like a few people in government failed to notice that almost everyone who has enough income to pay that kind of tax rate in the first place also has the ability to choose when they formally realize that income, and many of the wealthiest also have the ability to choose where they formally receive the income as well.
[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17465733
The newish top tax rate here is coming down to 45% in April 2013, after the new government finished figuring out how much of a poison chalice they had been left by the previous one. Unfortunately, this causes problems of its own, as they are now predicting a multi-billion pound shortfall in tax revenues for 2012-2013 as wealthy folk do the opposite and defer their income to take advantage of the reduced rate. Obviously they're hoping that greater tax revenues in later years will make up for that.
Worse than these individual disruptions over a relatively short period, though, is the fact that successive governments have made it very clear that they can and will mess around significantly with tax rates for high earners, which in turn creates an incentive for any big earner to talk to tax experts and either take part in legal tax avoidance schemes or at least minimise how much income they wind up with on paper in any given year until they're convinced that it's the most tax-efficient time for a while to take it and then grab the lot at (what they hope will be) a minimum rate.
At least we're not in France, where the government seem to think they can slap a 75% tax rate on the wealthy and not suffer horrendous consequences to their already business-hostile economic and political landscape...