In a new note to clients, UBS's U.S. economics team led by Maury Harris and Drew Matus includes a chart breaking down the
As expected, people making more money save a bigger chunk of their paychecks.
Harris and Matus argue we should take note of this because they believe this buffer will blunt the impact of recent tax hikes.
"We believe that the recently legislated higher household sector taxes in 2013 considerably overstate the related negative consumption impacts," they write. Here's more:
Higher Federal income taxes on relatively wealthy taxpayers should be accompanied by a drop in savings that limits the negative near-term consumer spending impact. Saving rates increase sharply at higher income levels, with the saving rate estimated at 51 cents on the dollar for the top 1% of the income distribution and 37 cents on the dollar for the top 5%. The higher top marginal tax rate apparently is limited to incomes within the top 1%, with the phase out of personal exemptions and itemized deductions limited to just the top few percent of the income distribution.
Here's the chart: