John,

In a moment I’m going to ask you to make an end-of-year donation to Americans for Tax Fairness. But first I want to share how the grassroots donations of thousands of supporters this year have powered our critical work in demanding millionaires, billionaires, and big corporations pay their fair share in taxes.

While 2022 was a year of victories and investments―from the 15% corporate-profits minimum tax on billion-dollar corporations to the stock buyback tax to the $80 billion investment in the IRS―in 2023 we blocked attacks on that progress and even made some advances.

We successfully beat back Republican attacks on the restored funding for the IRS. The House’s MAGA majority made gutting the IRS their first legislative vote of the year—and then they kept trying again and again to slash its funding all year long. This spring, it looked as though they were going to win $21 billion in cuts to the agency by threatening a default on our debt. But we never took that outcome as a given and we never stopped fighting.

The agency’s resources are still at risk in 2024, of course, but with no more votes left in 2023, we’re thrilled at having blocked the GOP’s craven attempt to let rich tax cheats off the hook. As a result, the IRS has now:

• Collected $160 MILLION from rich tax cheats this year alone

• Answered 2 MILLION more taxpayer calls than in previous years

• Notified Microsoft that it owes $29 BILLION in taxes

• Announced a free online filing program

• Announced audits of 60 giant corporations that together make more than $500 billion a year in profits; and notices issued to 150 corporations that have shifted profits offshore

For the second year in a row, we stopped Republican efforts to give corporations massive end-of-year tax breaks. But that fight is not over: when it arises again in January, we will demand an expanded Child Tax Credit that raises millions of kids out of poverty while fighting against the most egregious tax breaks sought by corporations, including a big subsidy for private equity.

We exposed billionaire bribery and corruption at the Supreme Court. Our efforts included breaking the news that the family of Republican mega-donor Harlan Crow―who has over the years bestowed unreported luxury gifts on Justice Clarence Thomas―increased their political donations by 862% after Thomas cast the deciding vote in the disastrous 5-4 Citizens United decision, which opened the floodgates to Big Money in our elections. And we shined a big spotlight on the way that the same billionaires buying up Supreme Court justices stand to benefit from cases before the Court this term.

We exposed how billionaires are trying to buy our democracy. The latest in a series of ATF reports on billionaire campaign contributions reported that billionaires had spent a record-breaking $1 billion in last year’s midterm elections.

We’ve helped move the idea of taxing billionaires on their biggest source of income—the gains from their growing wealth—from theory to legislation. We’ve built massive support both in Congress and among the public for the Billionaires Income Tax in the Senate and the Billionaire Minimum Income Tax in the House. Thanks in part to our advocacy, almost three-quarters (74%) of voters―including majorities of Democrats, Independents, and even Republicans―support an annual tax on billionaire wealth gains.

We broke the news that the collective wealth of America’s 741 billionaires had grown to a record $5.2 trillion. That’s up $2.3 trillion, or 78%, since the enactment of the 2017 Trump-GOP tax scam, which mostly benefited the rich.

And there’s more: we helped promote the introduction in the Senate of a bill that would increase the stock buyback tax from 1% to 4%; beat back GOP attempts to abolish the tax code altogether in favor of a regressive sales tax; pushed the introduction of a bill in Congress that would end the tax break for corporations that outsource jobs and profits; and thanks to you, we sent 423,959 letters to Congress in 2023, fighting for a tax code that holds millionaires, billionaires, and corporations accountable.

As we head into a pivotal election year, we’re making sure that our message of tax fairness―demanding the rich and corporations pay their fair share in taxes―is central to the political debate.

Make an end-of-year tax deductible donation to Americans for Tax Fairness today to power our advocacy and activism in the New Year!

If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your secure donation will go through immediately:

Thank you for all that you do to build an economy and a society that works for everyone, not just the wealthy few.

Sarah Christopherson
Legislative and Policy Director
Americans for Tax Fairness