Tell Your Members of Congress: Pass the Medicare and Social Security Fair Share Act

Hi ,

Did you know some of the richest Americans never pay into Social Security?

Right now, wage earners stop paying into Social Security after they earn $160,200 in wages in a year. And, for millionaires and billionaires who don’t earn a traditional salary and instead live off of the growth of their investment income, they don't pay into Social Security at all.

That's why Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and Rep. Brendan Boyle have introduced the Medicare and Social Security Fair Share Act, which would lift the payroll tax cap on incomes over $400,000 and apply the payroll tax to investment income, ensuring millionaires and billionaires are paying into Social Security on all of their income each year, just like regular working people always have.

Under this proposal, virtually no one outside of the richest 5% of taxpayers would pay more, and 93% of the total tax increase would be paid by the richest 1% alone in 2024. Citizens for Tax Justice Executive Director Amy Hanauer explained more of the details during her testimony in yesterday's Senate Committee on the Budget hearing.

This legislation would also close a loophole that currently allows hedge funds, private equity firms, and some oil and gas companies to avoid paying Medicare taxes and the related Net Investment Income Tax when they disguise earned income as “distributed business profits.”

If Congress fails to act now, both the Social Security and Medicare trust funds will begin to run short within the next 10 years.

Send a message to your senators and representative today urging them to co-sponsor and pass the Medicare and Social Security Fair Share Act.

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