Tag Archives: Taxes

High Flyers – The Cost of Private Jets for the Rest of Us

There is perhaps no greater symbol for our current age of extreme wealth, inequality, and environmental devastation than private jets. Earlier this month, the Patriotic Millionaires co-released a report – High Flyers 2023: How Ultra-Rich Private Jet Travel Costs the Rest of Us and Burns Up Our Planet – with the Institute for Policy Studies about the negative impacts of the private jet industry on … Continue reading High Flyers – The Cost of Private Jets for the Rest of Us »

Why We Don’t Just Send a Check to the IRS

Last week’s 2023 Annual Spring Meeting was a smashing success! Over the course of two days, we hosted policymakers, experts, and activists in conversations about the need to restructure the economy to reduce inequality, and held dozens of meetings with key lawmakers on Capitol Hill to advocate for higher taxes on ourselves and other wealthy Americans. While we were hard at work fighting to transform … Continue reading Why We Don’t Just Send a Check to the IRS »

Patriotic Millionaires Head to Washington for Tax Day

Happy Tax Day! For millions of Americans, today is the last day to file federal, state, and local taxes. (If you haven’t already filed, get cracking!) But Tax Day is more than just a filing deadline – it’s the one day a year when everyone in America is thinking about taxes, and is an annual reminder of just how skewed in favor of the rich … Continue reading Patriotic Millionaires Head to Washington for Tax Day »

Why Patriotic Millionaires Love High-Tax States

As Tax Day approaches, it’s a good time to examine some myths about how people – and the wealthy in particular – respond to higher taxes. As we all know, tax rates differ from state to state, in some cases dramatically. According to a report released last week, residents in New York, Hawaii, Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Maryland have the highest tax burdens in the … Continue reading Why Patriotic Millionaires Love High-Tax States »

The FairTax Act is Nowhere Near Fair

If you thought the GOP’s dedication to cutting taxes for rich people at any cost couldn’t get any more extreme, you might want to think again. The latest proposal out of the House takes their radicalism to a whole new level. Earlier this month, a group of House Republicans – including Earl “Buddy” Carter, Scott Perry, Matt Gaetz, and Marjorie Taylor Greene – re-introduced legislation … Continue reading The FairTax Act is Nowhere Near Fair »

Who’s Taxed More: Trump or a Cardiologist?

When you add up the numbers from reporting by the New York Times and the recently released House Ways and Means Committee Report on Trump’s taxes, Donald Trump paid total federal income taxes of about $1.8 million between 1996 and 2020, a 25-year period. He paid another $70 million or so between 2005 and 2007, but had all of that refunded to him when he … Continue reading Who’s Taxed More: Trump or a Cardiologist? »

Survival of the Richest

This week, over 2,700 world leaders are attending the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland – better known as simply “Davos.” Every year, elites from business, politics, and civil society meet at this annual conference held at an exclusive and luxurious Swiss ski resort to discuss humanity’s most pressing problems. And every year, they fail to make any real change because they refuse to … Continue reading Survival of the Richest »

House Republicans Want to Protect Wealthy Tax Cheats

As the new House GOP majority tries over and over again to elect a Speaker, the already-glaring dysfunction of the 118th Congress is hard to miss. But as we watch the GOP caucus fight amongst itself and paralyze our government, we should be preparing for something even worse – House Republicans working together. They may disagree on who should be their leader, but House Republicans … Continue reading House Republicans Want to Protect Wealthy Tax Cheats »

The clock is ticking on Democrats’ legislative agenda

This week, Congress has returned to work in Washington after the Thanksgiving break and will now finish out its “lame-duck session” – the legislative period between elections and the entry of a new Congress. This is crunch time for many important legislative goals for Democrats since they will lose control of the House come January. For this week’s Closer Look, we want to highlight a few of these legislative … Continue reading The clock is ticking on Democrats’ legislative agenda »

A Republican Congress Would Serve The Rich

Republicans have been busy in recent months cooking up plans for exactly what they want to accomplish if they retake Congress in the upcoming elections. It should come as no surprise that those plans are exactly what we’ve come to expect from the GOP for decades – tax breaks for the rich elite, crumbs for regular Americans, and the slashing of benefits and social services … Continue reading A Republican Congress Would Serve The Rich »

Corporate America is Ok with Paying Taxes… So Long As Those Taxes Allow Them To Pay Executives Mega-Millions

by Bob Lord and Emily McCloskey This piece was first published on Inequality.org. This past May, The Wall Street Journal released a bombshell report on trends in American CEO pay. According to their analysis, in 2021, median pay for CEOs at American S&P 500 companies rose to a record-setting $14.7 million, with the 25 highest grossing CEOs earning $35 million and the top 9 earning … Continue reading Corporate America is Ok with Paying Taxes… So Long As Those Taxes Allow Them To Pay Executives Mega-Millions »

Fighting Inequality at the State Level

We talk a lot about the American economy and the effect that decisions made by the federal government have on the lives and well-being of Americans all across the country. Because of that, it can be easy at times to think of the fight for economic justice as a purely national issue, something that just happens in Washington or in Congress and the White House. … Continue reading Fighting Inequality at the State Level »

IRA Support Bodes Well for Democrats in the Midterms

Today, President Biden gathered thousands of lawmakers, activists, and supporters for a celebration at the White House to recognize Democrats’ successful passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) last month. Our very own Chairman, Morris Pearl, was among the President’s honored guests applauding the IRA as a win for tax fairness and economic justice. Today’s event at the White House is a celebration of last month’s victory, … Continue reading IRA Support Bodes Well for Democrats in the Midterms »

The IRA – Fact vs. Fiction

It’s been just over 48 hours since President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) into law, and Republican pundits and lawmakers are already making it Target #1 in their efforts to take back Congress this November. Despite the fact that the IRA is a fantastic piece of legislation that makes our climate, healthcare system, and tax code better, conservatives want the American people to … Continue reading The IRA – Fact vs. Fiction »

A Letter to Bill Gates

Below is a letter sent to Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, on July 28, 2022 by Jeffrey R. Huggett, a member of the Patriotic Millionaires.   Dear Bill, Like so many others recently, I read your blog announcing substantial personal contributions to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Whereas I am thrilled about the important work you fund … Continue reading A Letter to Bill Gates »

87,000 IRS agents are not coming for you

Less than an hour ago, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) – the Democrats’ new healthcare, climate, and tax reform package – into law. This is a historic and monumental achievement that will likely be remembered as one of Biden’s biggest legislative victories. One of the most important elements of the IRA is the $80 billion in additional funding that the bill allocates to … Continue reading 87,000 IRS agents are not coming for you »

Joe Manchin Just Showed Why We Need the OLIGARCH Act

Last week, Senator Manchin blindsided his Democratic colleagues when he reversed course on his previous demands that their agenda be focused on tax reform and declared that he would not vote to raise taxes on the rich or massive corporations. In doing so, he dashed Democrats’ hopes to pass any sort of meaningful tax legislation before November. He also ironically proved, by showing the country … Continue reading Joe Manchin Just Showed Why We Need the OLIGARCH Act »

The Economy is Bad. Congress Needs to Fix It

It’s been a big week for economic news. From drama in Congress over the Build Back Better negotiations to continued economic strife affecting working Americans to new tax benefits offered to the rich, our economy is steadily moving in further favor of the wealthy, and the federal government appears ill-equipped to rise to the occasion. This week, we’ll look into how our current economy, policies, … Continue reading The Economy is Bad. Congress Needs to Fix It »

Time To End the Capital Gains Rate Giveaway

If you didn’t already know the federal tax law is a loophole-ridden mess that lets the ultra-rich pay a fraction of what they should, you could figure it out from this recent ProPublica headline: The Great Inheritors: How Three Families Shielded Their Fortunes From Taxes for Generations. Or, better yet, this one: How Susquehanna’s Jeff Yass Avoided $1 Billion in Taxes. Of course, if you’re … Continue reading Time To End the Capital Gains Rate Giveaway »

Why Billionaires Don’t Stress About Tax Day

This past Monday was Tax Day, which is undoubtedly no American’s favorite holiday. But the pain of Tax Day is not shared by all. While the typical American pays a good amount of every paycheck in taxes and hopes to get a refund after submitting their return, the ultra-wealthy have a variety of tools at their disposal that allows them to keep Tax Day virtually … Continue reading Why Billionaires Don’t Stress About Tax Day »