‘Billionaire Tax’ Expands Taxable Income, Should Be Dead on Revival Say Critics
March 31, 2022 | District of Columbia
President Joe Biden’s proposed “billionaire tax” may sound good to many voters, but it is fraught with vagaries that could redefine—and expand—the nation’s tax code, according to first-look analyses across a range of publications and sites, from The Wall Street Journal to the Heritage Foundation.
The tax proposal was included within Biden’s $5.8 billion Fiscal Year 2023 budget request to Congress.
It would levy a new income tax of 20 percent for households “worth” more than $100 million.
The aim is to chip away at the nation’s spending-over-revenues deficit by increasing revenues by more than $360 billion between 2023 and 2032 rather than scaling back spending, according to a White House Fact Sheet entitled, “President’s Budget Rewards Work, Not Wealth with new Billionaire Minimum Income Tax.”
Flanked by Office of Management & Budget Director Shalanda Young, when Biden introduced the 149-page proposed budget blueprint on March 28, he said only 100th (0.01 percent) of 1 percent of United States’ taxpayers would be affected by the new levy.
“Budgets are statements of values, and the budget I am releasing today sends a clear message that we value fiscal responsibility, safety and security at home and around the world, and the investments needed to continue our equitable growth and build a better America,” Biden said. “The billionaire minimum tax is fair, and it raises $360 billion that can be used to lower costs for families and cut the deficit.”
The fact sheet adds the projected $360 billion in revenues generated by the “billionaire minimum income tax” would come from households “worth” more than $1 billion and would “make sure that the wealthiest Americans no longer pay a tax rate lower than teachers and firefighters.”
“In 2021 alone,” it continues, “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.”
That “realized” and “unrealized” component of the “billionaire minimum income tax” is raising eyebrows because, in essence, it is “a first-of-its-kind tax on unrealized capital gains,” according to a budget breakdown by five fiscal policy analysts and researchers posted by the Heritage Foundation… (Excerpt from the Epoch Times)
