The Biden budget proposals address flaws in U.S. tax system that allow the wealthiest to avoid taxes
The president’s proposed minimum tax would address flaws that allow the nation’s very wealthiest families to pay a lower tax rate than middle-income families or even their slightly less wealthy counterparts. Recent research examines the impact of provisions of the tax law that provide preferential treatment for investment income and the fact that this income goes untaxed until an asset is sold. Taken together, these factors allow the wealthy to pay low tax rates year after year and, in many instances, to avoid paying tax altogether.45
Using a broader measure of earnings that includes income from unsold stock, economists Greg Leiserson and Danny Yagan estimated the average individual tax rate paid by the United States’ 400 wealthiest families and found that for the period from 2010 to 2018, they paid an average tax rate of 8.2 percent.46 This analysis takes into account the benefits the wealthy receive from the assets they own, as well as the tax preferences provided to realized and unrealized investment income.
A separate analysis by Martin Sullivan, using only income reported for tax purposes, compared the taxes paid by the superwealthy— those earning more than $10 million—versus their modestly wealthy counterparts and found the federal income tax to be progressive up until the very highest incomes.47 This analysis cites the wealthiest individuals’ very high share of income from tax-preferenced capital gains and dividends as the reason for the sizeable drop in their average tax rates. These households had adjusted gross incomes (AGI) of more than $10 million but paid a rate that was lower than that paid by those reporting $1 million to $10 million in AGI. Tax-favored capital gains and dividends accounted for the majority of the income of the superwealthy—57.8 percent in 2020, as compared with 37.6 percent for those with incomes of $5 million to $10 million and less than 4 percent for those with incomes below $200,000. The author of the study notes that the disparity would be even more significant if the income from unrealized gains is taken into account, saying:
Perhaps the absence of unrealized gain from the tax base wouldn’t be such a big deal if working folks and the rich all had unrealized gains proportionate to their taxable income. But nothing could be further from the truth. Most working folks have relatively small or nonexistent unrealized gains (except for gains on their personal residences). For the superrich, unrealized gains routinely account for an overwhelmingly large proportion of their wealth accumulation.48
these politicians aint shyt and you literally say nothing about biden correcting all the bad shyt trump was doing. Taxing the rich. no he taxed poor folks harder... taxing corporations using their money to help the poor people. nope tax loopholes still exist and they pay no federal tax...
why havent biden reversed or fixed whatever trump did??? y'all blaming trump that's fine but dont hold biden accountable to fix nothing...
BUT WHAT THE fukk IS BIDEN DOING TO REVERSE THAT!!?!?!?!??! nothing...
Trump changed the tax laws so we'd pay more
