Nesting If statement "AND" conditionals in Excel - excel

Question

I am having trouble with the logic of nesting if statements to check if the previous 4 cells are greater than 0.
What I am trying to do is calculated a luxury tax on a baseball team.
Originally, I wrote:
=IF(C74>J74,C74+(C74-J74)*IF(I71<>0*I72<>0*I73<>0, 0.5, IF(I72<>0*I73<>0,0.4,IF(I73<>0,0.3,0.175))), 0)
But it sums up all 4 years and doesn't factor in the consecutive idea.
Then I tried:
If they go over the salary tax threshold:
the first time then there is a 17.5% tax on the amount over:
if(C74>J74, I74*0.175, 0)
the second consecutive time there is a 30% tax on the amount over:
if(C74>J74, if(C73>J73, I74*0.3), I74*0.175), 0)
The third consecutive time there is a 40% tax:
if(C74>J74, if(C73>J73, if(C72>J72, I74*0.3), I74*0.175), 0)
And the fourth consecutive time there is a 50% tax:
if(C74>J74, if(C73>J73, if(C72>J72, if(C71>J71, I74*0.5), I74*0.3), I74*0.175), 0)
Straight from Wikipedia:
The threshold level for the luxury tax will be $189MM in 2014 (up from $178MM from 2011-2013) and will remain at $189MM through 2016. From 2012 through 2016, teams who exceed the threshold for the first time must pay 17.5% of the amount they are over, 30% for the second consecutive year over, 40% for the third consecutive year over, and 50% for four or more consecutive years over the cap.[4]
In my forumla, currently if a team goes over the luxury tax, then under, then over again- the calculation will still apply a 40% tax instead of 17.5.
Is there anyway check the conditions of the four preceding cells without having to write jumbled nested ifs like I am about to do?

Answer 1

I'd add a new column with a single IF statement, if the value is greater than the cap, then 1, otherwise 0. Then when you figure the tax, take the sum of "this" row's cell plus the three above it, and that tells you the number of years in this plus the last 4 that they're over. Which is what you're doing now, it sounds like.
If you want to just know CONSECUTIVE years, you could do something like,
if(sum(4 values)=4,50%,if(sum(3 values)=3,40%,if(sum(2 values)=2,30%,if(thisRow=1,17.5%,0%))))
That gives you the tax rate, and you can multiply the value its taxing in the same cell or elsewhere.
Hope that helps!