John,

Tuesday is Tax Day! And guess who's not paying their fair share in taxes? Millionaires, billionaires and wealthy corporations. As right-wing extremist politicians in Washington and on Wall Street tell us that we must make drastic cuts to essential programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and SNAP, they want to make the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act -- which cut the top tax rate, gave major tax cuts to the wealthiest earners, and lowered taxes on inherited wealth -- permanent.¹

We know that when the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share, we can afford investments in working people, vulnerable communities, the disabled, and the aging.

The U.S. tax code is deeply rooted in racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination. As our coalition partners at the National Women’s Law Center report: “Shaped by a small number of powerful elites, who have been largely white, male, and wealthy throughout our nation’s history, the tax code unsurprisingly reflects their worldviews, values, biases, and experiences.”²

Our current tax code is too outdated for our multicultural society and the ones who benefit the most are the ultra-wealthy who avoid paying taxes while programs for people with the least are severely underfunded. That’s why, this Tax Day we’re demanding the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share and that those new revenues are invested in critical human needs programs. Donate $5 today to fund the fight.

Single taxpayers are often subjected to the “marriage penalty,” meaning they shoulder a higher percentage of taxable income than some married couples who can effectively transfer half their earnings to their non-wage earning spouse and receive a tax break. According to Lily Khang -- a former tax attorney at the Department of the Treasury -- a single person never pays less in taxes than a married couple with the same income.³ 126.9 million adults -- almost 50% of all adults in the U.S. -- are unmarried or single.⁴ And they’re raising 24 million children in single-parent households.⁵

While workers are paying more in taxes despite stagnant wages and inflation, audit rates of millionaires and billionaires have dropped by 71% and audit rates of large corporations have declined by 54%. At the same time, the most audited county in the United States is Humphreys County, Mississippi⁶ -- a county of 7,551 people that’s 75% Black and where the per capita income is $21,861.⁷

These reasons and more are why it’s so important that we fight for President Biden’s fiscal year 2024 budget. It institutes the basic fairness of requiring the richest among us to pay taxes through its 25% Billionaire Minimum Income Tax, increased stock buyback tax on corporations, taxing investment income at the same rate as income from work, and raising the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28% (which is still lower than it was before the Trump tax cuts for the rich and corporations).

This Tax Day, fight for a tax code and an economy that makes the rich and corporations start paying their fair share because when they do, we can invest in working people, the aging, people with disabilities, vulnerable communities, and our future!

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The United States is the wealthiest country in the world. Instead of millionaires and billionaires dodging taxes while children go hungry, let’s finally make the rich and corporations pay their fair share.

Thank you for all you do to fight for our collective future,

Deborah Weinstein
Executive Director, Coalition on Human Needs

¹ Biden Tax Proposals Would Correct Inequities Created by Trump Tax Cuts and Raise Additional Revenues
² THE FAULTY FOUNDATIONS OF THE TAX CODE: Gender and Racial Bias in Our Tax Laws
³ One Is the Loneliest Number: The Single Taxpayer in a Joint Return World
⁴ Unmarried and Single Americans Week: September 18-24, 2022
⁵ Child Well-Being in Single-Parent Families
⁶ ‘They’re easiest to step on’: The real reason why families in the Delta, one of the nation’s poorest regions, are also the most audited by the IRS
⁷ QuickFacts Humphreys County, Mississippi