Opinion | Tax billionaires’ pandemic profits

A pandemic income tax may sound extreme to some, but there are many precedents for taxes like this after major disasters. France, Japan, and other nations used one-off property taxes to fund post-WWII reconstruction, and more recently Ireland and Iceland introduced temporary property taxes after the 2008 recession. In times of crisis, the USA, too, relies on substantial tax increases for the richest: The War Revenue Act passed during World War I raised the top tax rate from 15 to 67 percent. During World War II the rate reached 94 percent, with Franklin D. Roosevelt even suggesting a top rate of 100 percent.