A simple answer is No.

The wealthy and their businesses are incorporated and funnel their expenses and purchases through their corporations.

They are themselves trustees of that corporation and thus whenever they need to make a major purchase, such as a home, an automobile or a boat it is used as a business expense and belongs to the corporation.

A local Financial corporation always purchases season tickets (box seats) to a local major league sports team...it is written off as an entertainment expense. For example.
The Trustees of the Corporation were really the only ones using them...but this doesn't come out of their own pockets technically.

Raising taxes on income is moot because the wealthy have already figured out how to get around it.
They can afford to pay lawyers, accountants and "advisors" on how to keep their wealth and pay less in taxes than you or I do.


PEACE

I am a registered Republican. I am probably middle of the road on a lot of things until it comes to my money.

I believe that more taxes aren't necessarily the answer. The Government needs to clean up their act, then decide what to do. They blow money like a teenager with a new credit card. Responsibility is the answer. Then if there is a need for additional funds then tell us what it will take to fix it.

I used to own a company, until I recently got out of it. The company got ate alive by taxes and so did I. Basically the government saw that we were making over the threshold and thought we could afford more taxes. Not so much. I sold out to my partner and the company went under. 8 people lost their jobs.

Lesson learned.

Average people do not need to carry the burden of taxation, neither do small businesses. If anything give us breaks, be more understanding. Tax the Corporations that can afford it. Heck I bet a lot of them are not paying their share anyway. You want to raise taxes on some group? Go after the ones that aren't scraping by to begin with. I may have owned a business, but I went without pay more often than not because of employee payroll and taxes. Now I am on the verge of loosing the job I took because they can't afford to pay me anymore.

Average Americans get the crap end of the stick too often and we smile and take it. Not that they would ever pay attention to what really matters to us, but we can't take much more squeezing before we pop.

do high taxes create a stronger economy?

no all taxation does it take more money out of the system which means people lose income and federal income shrinks.

I would say that neither increasing nor discreasing taxes helps. Now giving incentives to create jobs here and hire only citizens would be the way to go. For instance grants for businesses and deductions on the taxes as they are now for employing the citizens here would be the answer. Sort of like Green credits for going green, but call them employee credits, for every 100 employees the company either gets a thousand dollars to invest or their tax falls a thousand dollars that's just a rough idea.