Tell Congress: Pass a Billionaires Income Tax
Wealthy Americans, especially billionaires, keep getting richer and richer while many working families barely keep their heads above water and struggle to afford healthcare, childcare, eldercare, education, housing and so much more.
These inequities are partly caused by our unfair tax system, which is essentially two tax systems―one that requires workers to pay income taxes out of every paycheck and another that enables billionaires to defer paying taxes for years, or avoid paying taxes altogether.
That’s because the income billionaires generate from their wealth in the form of rising corporate stock values or a growing and more profitable private business is not taxed unless those assets are sold. Typically, billionaires do not need to sell their assets since they can live off of cheap loans secured by their swelling fortunes.
Over the last two years, since the pandemic began, America’s roughly 700 billionaires grew their fortunes by $1.7 trillion, or 57%. They are now worth a collective $4.6 trillion―one-third more than the bottom half of American society.
A billionaires income tax proposed by President Biden in his newly unveiled budget and also by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), would tax billionaires’ wealth gains each year, just like workers’ wages are taxed each year. The President’s plan would raise at least $360 billion and Sen. Wyden’s plan would raise at least $550 billion.
This new revenue would help working families afford healthcare, childcare, eldercare, education, housing and more.
Tell Congress:
It’s time to end an unfair tax code that rewards wealth over work. We need you to require the ultrarich to pay their fair share of taxes through a Billionaires Income Tax. This would tax income from wealth as it is earned each year, just like income from wages is taxed. Such a tax would annually tax the rising value of assets like corporate stock, which are the main source of billionaire income and go untaxed for years, decades or even forever. It’s time to create a tax system―and an economy―that works for all of us.
Petition sponsored by Americans for Tax Fairness and Women's March.