John,

Tax Day is less than a week away, and guess who’s not paying their fair share in taxes? The richest 1% who, according to a new report, now hold $44 trillion in wealth.[1] And the reason they’re not paying their fair share is that, while working people pay income taxes with every paycheck they earn, the wealthy can go years, if not forever, without paying a dime in taxes on their wealth gains from the stock market and other investments.

That’s because, under current law, taxes are only due on investment gains when the investments are sold. And the ultra-wealthy don’t have to sell to benefit: they can live luxuriously off of low-cost loans secured against their rising fortunes. And when investment gains are passed along to their heirs, those gains simply disappear for tax purposes.

That means trillions of dollars in investment gains―the principal source of income for the truly wealthy―may never be taxed at all.

At the same time, from 2018-2022, the biggest corporations in America saw their collective profits skyrocket by 63%—to a staggering $1.25 trillion.[2] Meanwhile, research from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy reveals that hundreds of the nation’s largest, most profitable corporations over those same five years paid an average tax rate of about 14%―one-third less than the statutory rate of 21% and less than what average American families pay.[3] Twenty-three of those huge firms—including T-Mobile and Duke Energy—paid nothing at all…in fact, got millions of dollars in refunds.

Guess what corporations are doing with all their money instead? According to a report from Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy Studies, 35 of them—including Ford, Netflix, and Tesla—paid their top five executives over the five years 2018-22 more than they paid in federal income taxes.[4] And, a new report from Oxfam shows that 90% of corporate profits are going straight to wealthy shareholders in the form of stock buybacks and dividend payments.[5]

This Tax Day we’re telling Congress to side with working people, not billionaires and large profitable corporations. Add your name today!

Now, even as the wealth of the richest 1% skyrockets and corporations pay their top executives more than they pay in taxes, Donald Trump and congressional Republicans are seeking another round of tax cuts in 2025 that would cost the American people $4.2 trillion over 10 years.[6] According to research from ITEP, the poorest fifth of Americans would receive just 1% of the total tax cut while the richest 20% would receive nearly two-thirds.[7]

They want to lower the tax rate on the richest Americans, maintain tax loopholes abused by wealthy hedge fund managers and real estate developers, weaken the alternative minimum tax, lower global minimum corporate tax rates, and do more to make our tax system even less fair.

Instead of more tax cuts for the richest 1% and large profitable corporations, we should be making the wealthy pay their fair share by raising the corporate tax rate from 21% to at least 28%, implementing a 25% tax on the wealth gains of billionaires and ultra-millionaires, preserving IRS funding to crack down on wealthy and corporate tax cheats, strengthening the estate tax, and much, much more.

Add your name to tell Congress to side with working people this Tax Day, not millionaires, billionaires, and Big Business.

Together, we’re fighting to unrig our tax code to build an economy that works for everyone, not just the wealthy few.

Thank you for taking action today,

David Kass
Executive Director
Americans for Tax Fairness Action Fund

[1] The wealth of the 1% just hit a record $44 trillion
[2] America’s largest companies are fueling inequality, says new study
[3] Corporate Tax Avoidance in the First Five Years of the Trump Tax Law
[4] More for Them, Less for Us
[5] Inequality, Made in America
[6] Build Your Own Tax Extensions
[7] Extending Temporary Provisions of the 2017 Trump Tax Law: National and State-by-State Estimates