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John,
Billionaires saw their wealth grow by $2 trillion during the first two years of the pandemic. What are they doing with that new-found wealth?
In the 2020 election, they spent a whopping $1.2 billion buying our elections and our democracy. It’s time for billionaires to start paying their fair share in taxes, and that means paying taxes each year, just like working people.
Sign the petition and demand billionaires pay taxes each year, just like you and I do. It’s time for Congress to limit billionaires’ undue influence in our elections.
Billionaires donated almost $240 million to the combined campaign efforts of Donald Trump’s two runs for president. Over half came from just one billionaire household, that of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson (who has since died).
Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel, who is worth about $5 billion, has so far spent almost $30 million through super PACs supporting the 2022 senatorial bids of two former employees who share his anti-democratic and anti-tax beliefs. J.D. Vance won the Ohio Republican U.S. Senate primary thanks in part to Thiel’s $15 million in spending. Blake Masters has a fighting chance in Arizona’s GOP U.S. Senate primary in August due to Thiel’s $13.5 million in contributions.
Wall Street trader Jeffrey Yass, who is worth about $12 billion, has already contributed $28.5 million to right-wing political candidates this election cycle, many of them election deniers, and anti-tax and other right-wing groups. Between 2009 and 2018 Yass had income of $11.4 billion and paid $1.95 billion in federal income taxes, an effective tax rate of just 17.2%—a little more than the 13.3% average rate paid by all families.
In order to rein in the undue influence of billionaire money in our elections and our democracy, it’s time for America’s roughly 750 billionaires to pay taxes on their wealth gains each year, not just when they feel like it.
Tell Congress: Whether through a Billionaires Income Tax or other means that tax the wealth gains and incomes of billionaires, Congress must make billionaires pay their fair share in taxes and limit their influence on our elections.
Together, we’re demanding a future that includes all of us, and that means billionaires finally start paying their fair share in taxes!
Maura Quint
Campaign Director
Americans for Tax Fairness Action Fund
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