UNLIKE the previous administration the Biden-Harris administration is attempting to address American income tax inequality by presenting legislation that will tax households valued over over $100 MILLION at 20%. Please sign this petition from Demand Progress and then take the time to e mail your representative and senators and demand they support and vote for the Biden-Harris billionaire tax (I did) and unless you are worth $100 million or more I can not understand why you would not want this tax legislation passed. This post also includes the legislation announcement from the White House ......
Breaking news: Elon Musk is about to take control over Twitter.1 Multiple reports indicate a deal is imminent that would hand control over one of the world's most important communications channels to one of the world's richest men. He might even let Donald Trump back onto the platform. Musk claims he wants free speech. But the reality is Musk, like most billionaires, has spent a long of time and money silencing his critics.2 It's alarming that he has the money to even make this deal a possibility. It's yet another example of what happens when our government allows people to become as rich as this: they try to grab power over other parts of our lives. The US needs a billionaires' tax now to stop these American oligarchs. Click here if you agree. We already knew the US's tax code was rigged, but a recent ProPublica investigation of the richest 400 Americans' tax filings reveals that once you pass the $2-5 million tax bracket in the US, average tax rates actually decrease.3 And the very richest, like Musk, regularly avoid paying any income tax whatsoever. Sign the petition: We need to tax the rich! Congress must pass a 20% minimum tax rate on all American households worth more than $100 million. The only reason Musk faces income tax from last year is that beginning in November 2021, Musk began moving his Tesla shares around. Billionaires only face taxes once they start to pull their money out of the stock market. Musk may be paying $11 billion in taxes for 2021, but that sum doesn't include any taxes for the wealth he still holds in stocks. And even though Musk himself paid taxes last year, his company, Tesla, avoided paying any US corporate taxes whatsoever, despite recording record profits.4 Luckily, President Biden just released a new plan for making sure billionaires pay their fair share, and he's beginning talks with Joe Manchin and other key swing votes on the proposal.5 By taxing just 0.01% of American households, experts estimate the tax will raise around $360 billion over the next decade. That's federal money that can go towards public programs that help us all — instead of lining billionaires' pockets and helping them control our everyday lives.6 A billionaire's tax is key to reining in the American oligarchy, and helps reallocate funds to where we sorely need them: healthcare, housing, the Child Tax Credit, and government initiatives to counter the runaway corporate power that enriched Musk in the first place. It's the ideal time to slap a tax on Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and the rest of the billionaires. Congress needs to hear from you — President Biden's new billionaire's tax proposal must pass! Sign the petition: Congress must approve President Biden's new billionaire's tax! Thanks for taking action, Izzi and the team at Demand Progress Sources:
1. New York Times, "Twitter Nears a Deal to Sell Itself to Elon Musk," April 24, 2022.
2. Bloomberg, "Musk Wants Free Speech on Twitter After Spending Years Silencing Critics," April 21, 2022.
3. ProPublica, "America's Highest Earners And Their Taxes Revealed," April 13, 2022.
4. CNN, "Elon Musk's US tax bill: $11 billion. Tesla's: $0," February 10, 2022.
5. Washington Post, "President Biden to unveil new minimum tax on billionaires in budget," March 26, 2022.
6. White House, "President's Budget Rewards Work, Not Wealth with new Billionaire Minimum Income Tax," March 28, 2022. 
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President’s Budget Rewards Work, Not Wealth with new Billionaire Minimum Income TaxMARCH 28, 2022
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PRESS RELEASES
For too long, our tax code has rewarded wealth, not work, and contributed to growing income and wealth inequality in America. Under current law, when an American worker earns a dollar of wages, that dollar is taxed as they earn it. But when a billionaire earns income because their investments increase in value, that gain is too often never taxed at all.
America’s imbalanced tax code means that many millionaires and billionaires end up paying lower tax rates than middle class workers. In 2021 alone, America’s more than 700 billionaires saw their wealth increase by $1 trillion, yet in a typical year, billionaires like these would pay just 8 percent of their total realized and unrealized income in taxes. A firefighter or teacher can pay double that tax rate.
President Biden is a capitalist and believes that anyone should be able to become a millionaire or a billionaire. He also believes that it is wrong for America to have a tax code that results in America’s wealthiest households paying a lower tax rate than working families. President Biden has long called for taxing capital gains as ordinary income and for eliminating the stepped-up basis loophole that enables the capital gains of the very wealthy to go untaxed forever. As part of his fiscal year 2023 budget, President Biden is calling on Congress to pass legislation requiring the wealthiest American households to pay a minimum of 20 percent on all of their income, including unrealized investment income that currently is untaxed.
President Biden’s Billionaire Minimum Income Tax will make America’s tax code fairer and reduce the deficit by about $360 billion in just the next decade. This will put the United States Government on firmer financial footing, building on the progress the Administration has made to reduce the deficit by over half by the end of this year compared to President Trump’s last year in office. Through the Billionaire Minimum Income Tax and other measures, the President’s budget will reduce the deficit by another $1 trillion over the decade.
The Billionaire Minimum Income Tax will require America’s wealthiest households to pay as they go, just like everyone else:
The Billionaire Minimum Income Tax will ensure that the very wealthiest Americans pay a tax rate of at least 20 percent on their full income, including unrealized appreciation. This minimum tax would make sure that the wealthiest Americans no longer pay a tax rate lower than teachers and firefighters.
The tax will apply only to the top one-one hundredth of one percent (0.01%) of American households (those worth over $100 million). Over half of the revenue will come from households worth more than $1 billion.
If a wealthy household is already paying 20 percent on their full income – standard taxable income plus unrealized income – they will pay no additional tax under this proposal. If tax-free unrealized income allows a wealthy household to pay less than 20 percent on their full income, they will owe a top-up payment to meet the 20 percent minimum. As a result, this new minimum tax will eliminate the ability for the unrealized income of ultra-high-net-worth households to go untaxed for decades or generations.
The proposal allows wealthy households to spread initial top-up payments on unrealized income over nine years, and then five years for top-up payments on new income going forward. Stretching payment over multiple years will smooth year-to-year variation in investment income, while still ensuring that the wealthiest end up paying a minimum tax rate of 20 percent. Illiquid taxpayers may opt to pay later with interest.
In effect, the Billionaire Minimum Income Tax payments are a prepayment of tax obligations these households will owe when they later realize their gains. This approach means that the very wealthiest Americans pay taxes as they go, just like everyone else, and eliminates the inefficient sheltering of income for decades or generations.
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