On Monday, March 1, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, and Rep. Brendan Boyle took a stand against out-of-control wealth inequality by introducing The ‘Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act’ to Congress. So what will this tax do? It’s a virtual copy of the wealth tax that Warren ran on in her 2020 presidential campaign. A wealth tax is a yearly tax on the net worth, essentially assets … Continue reading Explaining The Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act
Yesterday morning, the New York Times released a damning report on President Trump’s tax returns, detailing how the President has avoided millions of dollars on his tax bill for the past decade, despite continuing to wrack up millions every year. Much of the attention garnered by the report has focused on the fact that the meager $750 Trump paid in taxes in each 2016 and … Continue reading President Trump’s Tax Returns Are Bad. You Can Thank the Tax Code.
At this moment, millions of Americans are unable to feed themselves and their families. Over 54 million citizens of the richest country in the world are projected to experience the pain of food insecurity this year.
As the final sprint to the 2020 election kicks into gear, prepare to hear a lot about the choice at the top of the ticket and the accompanying admonitions not to forget down ballot races. However, just as importantly, voters will weigh in on an array of ballot initiatives and referendums in 26 states and Washington, D.C. Although these are often glossed over for splashy, … Continue reading Taxing the Rich: The People’s Choice
With both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions behind us, the 2020 election is finally, really, underway, ushering in the final sprint in a race for the White House with profound economic implications. After four years of President Trump, we have a clear sense of what he wants to do with our tax code – cut taxes for millionaires, billionaires, and corporations. Considering that the … Continue reading Biden’s Tax Plan Doesn’t Go Far Enough
If you think back to the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis in the US in March, you might remember all the doomsday headlines about the stock market tanking to record lows and investors losing millions of dollars as a result. Three months later, those headlines have entirely disappeared, and there’s a reason for that: the stock market has recovered almost all of the losses incurred … Continue reading A Wealth Tax Is the Perfect COVID Stimulus Measure
The Supreme Court just announced (Monday, 22 June 2020) that they are refusing Intel’s final appeal, and Intel will now apparently be paying some taxes on a small part of their profit that they were trying to shelter in some little Caribbean Island.
If you take some of your money that is invested in one business, and use it to invest in something (like a building) for the purpose of running another business, should the act of buying the stuff for the new business generate a huge tax break for you? The way our government answers that question has hundreds of billions of dollars of impact on corporate taxation.
Earlier this month, the Patriotic Millionaires launched an exciting new direct legislative advocacy project in tandem with several key allies called Donors Advocating for Real Economic Solutions (DARES). This joint venture is focused on creating legislation to relieve the economic pressure from the COVID-19 crisis by drawing on the collective power of political donors to directly and effectively lobby on behalf of legislation that will … Continue reading The Good, The Bad, And the Ugly of the HEROES Act
You might have heard about the “Millionaires Giveaway” or the “Grassley Giveaway” already, but what exactly is it? Here’s some background that you need to know to understand this tax break.
Out of all the issues and priorities that the US could and should be focusing on right now, the White House has decided the most pressing thing that could be done is yet another round of tax cuts.
As 2019 comes to a close, let’s take a moment to look back at the major events that impacted the state of the economy – and the national conversation around our three core issues – as we enter the new year, and the many policy developments this year that are giving us hope for better, brighter decade to come.
As the 2020 presidential candidates increasingly talk about raising taxes on the wealthy, it seems like every day a new, well-paid talking head comes out of the woodwork to try and convince us all why this would somehow, actually, be a bad thing. The latest act of mental gymnastics comes to us from Lee Ohanian, an economics professor at UCLA, who desperately wants working Americans … Continue reading Actually, Taxing Capital Is A Great Idea
Every year, the gap between the wealthiest Americans and the rest of the country grows wider and wider. While 40% of Americans would be unable to come up with $400 in an emergency, a select few wonder where they’ll park their next yacht. But we didn’t arrive to a reality where the richest 10% of Americans hold 70% of the countries’ wealth by accident. In … Continue reading “The Triumph of Injustice” and How to Tax Our Way Back
This week, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg gave a blistering speech to world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly on their climate inaction, castigating them for only talking about “fairytales of eternal economic growth.” She’s right – but fairytales of growth don’t even scratch the surface of our fossil fuel economic problem. Fossil fuels are, unfortunately, so deeply embedded in our political economy that … Continue reading The Climate Crisis In Our Tax Code
Most working Americans see taxes taken out of their paycheck every other week. Wages are taxed in real-time, while investment growth (from stocks, dividends, etc., ) is only taxed when the investment is sold. On any given year, rich people are not paying any taxes on the majority of any increase in their personal wealth. This is because most of their wealth comes from their … Continue reading Equalizing Capital Gains is Essential for Equality
One afternoon in Georgia, a man lifted a $2 can of beer from a corner store. He was quickly caught, prosecuted, and ordered to wear a $1,000 ankle monitoring device as part of a plea deal – at his own expense. The man, already impoverished, sold his plasma to try and make the minimum payments. When he fell behind, the court jailed him for not being able … Continue reading In Revenue Shortfalls, Don’t Fine the Poor – Tax the Rich
Amid warning signs of recession, rather than helping normal Americans Donald Trump has yet again suggested a new round of tax cuts for the rich. Trump has proposed, then backed down from, then proposed again, then backed away from again, indexing capital gains to inflation, which would hand over $100 billion in tax cuts to some of the richest Americans. We shouldn’t be surprised that … Continue reading America First or Rich People First?
In 2017, Republican legislators in the House and Senate passed a sweeping $1.9 trillion tax cut bill, the vast majority of which went directly into the pockets of millionaires, billionaires, and multinational corporations. Emboldened by the success of their first attempt, they’re now back for more tax cuts for the rich. This time, they want to further decrease capital gains taxes.
Here’s a helpful tip to understanding the current debate over taxing the rich: if you ever find yourself reading an opinion piece, say like the one in this morning’s Wall Street Journal, that begins with the words, “the two of us are quite rich,” take whatever follows with a heaping grain of salt. That may sound a bit counterintuitive coming from a group called the … Continue reading Making Money Doesn’t Make You A Patriot