The Billionaires Tax Is Back – Democratic Senator Ron Wyden has a plan to make the ultrarich pay.
by Picture-unrelated
The Billionaires Tax Is Back – Democratic Senator Ron Wyden has a plan to make the ultrarich pay.
by Picture-unrelated
28 comments
As nice as it would be to see, it won’t ever pass the House at the moment.
>>“Last time I looked, there’s an election coming up in 2024, something rumored to that effect. And people are going to say, ‘What are you for?’” Wyden said, noting the relative popularity of increasing taxes on billionaires among average Americans. “Now there’s an actual piece of legislation, black-letter text, 17 senators on it—six members of the Senate Finance Committee—and that’s going to give us a chance to force a real debate.”
This right here is the way. Have to GIVE people something to vote for
>The legislation targets a practice known as “buy, borrow, die” that billionaires use to avoid paying income taxes: A billionaire buys assets that appreciate in value, borrows against those assets’ increasing and untaxed value, and then passes on the assets to beneficiaries when they die, without paying taxes. Wyden’s legislation would require people with more than $1 billion in assets to pay capital gains taxes on the appreciation of value in these assets—such as real estate, stocks, or collectibles—regardless of whether they are sold.
>If it were to become law, such a proposal would likely be challenged in court as soon as the ink of the president’s signature was dry. But Wyden argued that enforcement mechanisms already exist in the tax code; moreover, the Sixteenth Amendment of the Constitution allows for Congress to tax earnings, and proponents argue that this proposal is an income tax, not a so-called “wealth tax.” Wyden also pointed out that Supreme Court justices seemed hesitant to upend the tax code in recent arguments for another tax-related case.
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Wyden believes that the hundreds of billions of dollars that could be generated from this tax could be used to shore up funding for Social Security and Medicare, both of which are facing impending shortfalls, or address childcare needs. Biden has proposed similar legislation, which would apply to around 20,000 households, as opposed to the roughly 1,000 people who would be affected by Wyden’s plan, but Wyden argued that both ideas had a similar purpose.
I like this, this is a good first step but a little bit more needs to be done.
[Legislative text of the “Billionaire’s Income Tax Act” can be found here.](https://www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/billionaires_income_tax_legislative_text.pdf)
The important thing to understand about legislation introduced this close to the end of the year and with no path forward in the house is this: none of the people who wrote or sponsored this bill expect it to get a vote or become law as it stands. This bill is a statement on what their agenda is if Democrats are given the power to pass laws after the 2024 election.
Why is not every democratic senator constantly pushing for this? It should be all over social media and the news every day. But is suspect the truth is that aside from a very small minority, they don’t actually want it…
But think of the poor rich kids!
Never going to pass. Even if dems get the trifecta, the ultra-rich will ultimately buy out enough senators or representatives to sink it.
It should be taxing their capital too. And capital gains needs to be jacked WAY up. All these billionaires get paid in huge stock options that are simply not taxed at a fair rate.
Fuck of old commie
The Ultrarich who own the SCOTUS Six body and soul?
Anyone who doesn’t support **insanely high taxes** on billionaires is an idiot.
Doesn’t go far enough. Capital gains should be forfeited in all instances. There’s no need for gains.
>Wyden’s legislation would require people with more than $1 billion in assets to **pay capital gains taxes on the appreciation of value in these assets**—such as real estate, stocks, or collectibles—**regardless of whether they are sold.**
There seems to be a case in front of SCOTUS re this exact question, except it has to do with a share of an overseas company.
ELI5 why the tax brackets stop at $700k
They need to make a tax leaderboard. Try to inspire them into competing for the top while still being wealthy.
Awful policy that will lead to widespread unemployment, but beyond that, will the government be paying these billionaires when the value of their property goes down? If you tax unrealized gain, what happens when those “gains” become losses? They aren’t income, and it should stay that way.
That’s my Senator and I luv him!
Can’t wait to hear how this personally effects the dude working at Walmart making $11 an hour
The government does not have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem. Let’s please focus on fiscal responsibility. What’s the point of this new tax (that will never pass) if the money gets washed down the drain or lost in the mix.
Could not give less of a fuck about this election horse shit. Put your dick where your ass is
Billionaire oligarchs are too dangerous not to be taxed out of existence and I applaud the Senator’s efforts remind us of that, regardless of this particular bill’s chances of success.
Show. His donors will suddenly dry up
It’s not going to pass so it’s not “back”
Make it happen Ron!!!👏👏
Just so everyone knows and a lot of people don’t realize this part but The purpose of this is not for the government to necessarily take their money, they are putting a tax on income over x amount, they are NOT reforming tax code. So the billionaires will still have some loopholes. One of which is to spend the money on business related expenses (business infrastructure, bonuses, healthcare, etc) to lower their taxable income. In a very simplified explanation the tax actually encourages billionaires to spend some of their wealth which then gets infused back into the economy instead of it just being hoarded. Will there be shit bags that scam em and don’t get caught because our IRS is underfunded and a joke? Sure, but on a large scale this is how the nation thrived in the 40’s-70’s after WW2. This is over simplified but it’s the internet, Google some shit lol.
God forbid the people with 1,000s of generations worth of money living between mega mansions, mega yachts, helicopters, supercars, and private planes barely touching the ground help the rest of us pay taxes to keep the country and less fortunate afloat.
Make it fucking so.