Elizabeth Warren proposes wealth tax on ‘ultra-millionaires’
The three Democrats unveiled the Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act on Monday morning. It would levy a 2% annual tax on the web value of households and trusts between $50 million and $1 billion in addition to a 1% annual surtax on property above $1 billion, for a 3% tax general on billionaires.
“As Congress develops additional plans to help our economy, the wealth tax should be at the top of the list to help pay for these plans because of the huge amounts of revenue it would generate,” Warren stated in an announcement. “This is money that should be invested in child care and early education, K-12, infrastructure, all of which are priorities of President Biden and Democrats in Congress.”
About 100,000 American households could be topic to the tax, which might elevate round $3 trillion over a decade, in keeping with an evaluation offered by the lawmakers. It was carried out by University of California Berkeley Professors Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, who’re well-known for his or her left-leaning work on revenue and wealth inequality.
The income estimate is increased than the one with which they offered Warren in the course of the marketing campaign partially as a result of the wealth on the prime, notably amongst billionaires, has grown over the previous two years and is anticipated to proceed growing, they stated. Two years in the past, they estimated it could elevate $2.75 trillion over a decade and have an effect on 75,000 households.
Taxing wealth, nevertheless, might be very tough to do. There are questions on whether or not it’s permitted by the US Constitution, with authorized students falling on each side of the argument.
Also, wealth taxes might be powerful to manage because the wealthy typically have property which might be arduous to worth.