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John,
Wealthy Americans, especially billionaires, keep getting richer and richer while working families are struggling with increasing out-of-pocket expenses on everything from food to gas to housing.
In fact, a new report from our coalition partners, Americans for Tax Fairness, shows that America’s 740 billionaires have seen their wealth grow by $2 trillion since the pandemic began.[1] That’s a 70% increase!
Thankfully, President Biden and Senator Ron Wyden, Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, have each put forward plans to tax wealth like work.
The President’s plan would raise at least $360 billion over 10 years[2] while Sen. Ron Wyden’s Billionaires Income Tax would raise at least $550 billion.[3] What could we do with these funds?
We could expand the poverty-fighting Earned Income Tax Credit for a decade for 17 million low-wage workers ($135 billion) or expand the Child Tax Credit for four years ($484 billion), which, last year, lowered childhood poverty by 40%.[4]
We could provide free preschool to 6 million three- and four-year olds ($214 billion). Or we could lower at-home care costs for the aging and people with disabilities ($209 billion).
Click here to write to your members of Congress and demand they pass a billionaires income tax to tax wealth’s giant gains like work and make America’s 740 billionaires pay taxes on their wealth gains each year, not just when they feel like it.
Right now, millionaires and billionaires only pay federal income tax when they sell assets such as stocks or a business. And since they can live on low-interest loans, backed by their exorbitant wealth, they rarely need to.
This means that, as their wealth grows, year after year, they’re able to get away with paying little to nothing in federal income taxes, even as you and I pay our taxes with every paycheck we earn.
President Biden and our champions in Congress are working to unrig our tax code and demand the ultra-rich pay taxes every year, just like you and I do.
Send a message directly to your senators and representative today and demand they pass a billionaires income tax to tax wealth like work and make America’s 740 billionaires pay taxes each year.
Thank you for fighting for investments in our future, paid for by making the rich and powerful pay their fair share.
Deborah Weinstein
Executive Director, Coalition on Human Needs
[1] https://americansfortaxfairness.org/issue/tax-day-americas-working-families-paying-fair-share-americas-billionaires-not/
[2] https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/131/General-Explanations-FY2022.pdf
[3] https://www.finance.senate.gov/chairmans-news/wyden-statement-on-billionaires-income-tax-score
[4] https://americansfortaxfairness.org/issue/6-ways-spend-revenue-billionaires-income-tax/
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