For Immediate Release
Thursday, May 23, 2024
Patriotic Millionaires Encouraged by Secretary Yellen’s Clarification on G20 Billionaire Tax
“We are encouraged by the Secretary’s clarifying remarks today and grateful for the Treasury Department’s and Biden administration’s commitment to taxing billionaires. For too long, these oligarchs have used every loophole in the book to avoid their civic and patriotic responsibility.”
WASHINGTON, DC – Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal reported that, ahead of her meeting with G7 finance ministers, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen would oppose a proposal to institute a global minimum tax on billionaires. However, buried beneath the headline was a quote by Yellen which made clear that her objection to the concept centered on a theoretical redistributive element – not the tax itself.
Patriotic Millionaires released a statement calling for clarity, and at a press conference today, Secretary Yellen heeded our call. She clarified her position on the proposal, and again made clear that her objection was strictly limited to redistribution, which is not a piece of the proposed G20 Agenda. (A readout of the Secretary’s statement today can be found below.)
In response, Morris Pearl, the Chair of the Patriotic Millionaires and a former managing director at BlackRock, Inc., released the following statement:
“We are encouraged by the Secretary’s clarifying remarks today and grateful for the Treasury Department’s and Biden administration’s commitment to taxing billionaires. For too long, these oligarchs have used every loophole in the book to avoid their civic and patriotic responsibility.
To be clear, what the Patriotic Millionaires and other advocates want to see discussed at the G20 has nothing to do with redistributing wealth to other countries. Instead, we are encouraging a framework akin to Pillar 2 of the 2021 OECD minimum corporate tax agreement. Under this proposed structure, the G20 would set minimum standards for taxing billionaires and the United States would be able to meet that standard however it sees fit. Meeting that standard could include proposals like President Biden’s Billionaire Minimum Income Tax, and just like with any other tax, decisions around how that revenue would be used are ultimately domestic political considerations.
We encourage Secretary Yellen to stay engaged in this negotiation, and hope that the US will be a leader on this important and necessary discussion at the G20.”
Secretary Yellen’s remarks on the G20 global minimum billionaire tax proposal:
“Let me try to clarify. So, it’s clear that President Biden and I are committed to progressive taxation. We feel that the tax burden on high income earners and corporations is too low, and we’ve made many proposals in the 2025 and earlier budgets to rectify that. And one of the proposals is, I would not call it a wealth tax, but it is an income tax, that is sometimes referred to as a billionaires tax, although it would kick in at a somewhat lower level of income, but income in that proposal would be defined to include unrealized capital gains, so there are some similarities to a wealth tax, although it is not exactly a wealth tax.
So it’s not that I have any objection to imposing a reasonable level of taxation and certainly a minimum level of taxation on very high income individuals in the United States. Rather, it’s that I’m not supportive of an international negotiation that would involve all countries agreeing to do it, and to redistribute the proceeds among countries potentially based on climate and damage suffered from climate.”
For additional information or interview requests, please contact Emily McCloskey at emily@patrioticmillionaires.org.
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