American rich tax plan American rich tax makes the rich on pins and needles
Recently, the American super rich are on pins and needles. Their wealth may shrink sharply and their position in the global billionaire list is in jeopardy. What scares them is Elizabeth middot, the Democratic presidential candidate of the United States; Warren's idea of taxing the rich.
According to Warren's proposal, families with assets of more than $50 million will have to pay taxes of 2% a year, and families with assets of more than $1 billion will have to pay taxes of 3%. Not long ago, Warren increased the wealth tax and proposed to raise the tax rate on the super rich from 3% to 6%.
Bill & middot, founder of Microsoft; Gates said Warren's' wealth tax 'had gone too far and was shocked by the proposal.
'I've paid more than $10 billion in taxes, more than anyone, but if I have to pay $20 billion, I'm happy to do it. But when you say I should pay $100 billion in taxes, I'll start doing arithmetic and see how much money I have left. " Bill & middot; Gates said.
For Bill & middot; Gates complained that low-income groups in the United States may not pay. According to the latest data, in 2018, the 400 richest Americans paid a lower total tax rate than any other income group for the first time in history.
Warren's' rich tax 'is like a fuse, which once again triggered a debate on the fairness of the U.S. tax system.
Lower and lower US' rich tax '
Ten years ago, Warren & middot; Buffett issued a statement saying his tax rate was lower than his secretary.
This is because the federal government imposes a lower tax rate on investment income than the wage income tax rate imposed on many Americans. At present, the highest legal tax rate of investment income in the United States is only 23.8%, and the highest legal tax rate of wage income is 43.4%.
Because a large part of Buffett's income comes from investment, such as Warren & middot; Billionaires like Buffett pay lower tax rates than millions of Americans. Ironically, all this happened at a time when the income gap between the rich and ordinary people in the United States was greater than ever before.
According to the survey data released by the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2018, the income gap in the United States further expanded, and the Gini coefficient reached a new high in 50 years.
According to Emmanuel & middot, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley; Seth and Gabriel & middot; According to Zuckerman's estimation, between the late 1970s and 2016, the proportion of wealth occupied by the richest 1% in the United States tripled, from 7% to 20%. At the same time, the proportion of wealth occupied by the bottom 90% decreased from 35% to 25%.
A recent study by the Federal Reserve also shows that over the past 30 years, the wealth of the richest 1% group in the United States has increased by $21 trillion, while the wealth of the 50% group at the bottom of the U.S. wealth pyramid has decreased by $900 billion.
Analysts believe that the previous tax reduction policy of the U.S. government has reduced the tax rate of the highest earners, further widening the gap between the rich and the poor in the United States.
In the 1950s and 1960s, this was a completely different picture. When the economy was booming, the richest Americans paid the highest income tax of 91%. Today, the top tax rate is only 43.4%.
The main reason why the tax rate of the United States is getting lower and lower is that its tax system has been fundamentally reduced.
It is reported that the US federal income tax is designed as a progressive tax - the tax rate increases gradually with the increase of income, which helps to narrow the income gap. Over the past few decades, the system has been seriously eroded, and many multimillionaires and billionaires pay lower tax rates than ordinary American families.
Seth and Zuckerman describe the history of American taxation as a struggle between those who want to tax the rich and those who want to protect the wealth of the rich. In the middle of the 20th century, advocates of high tax rates had the upper hand, but most of the second half of the 20th century was the victory of the low tax side.
When Warren proposed to tax the rich, she won the support of many low-income voters.
In Warren's calculator, Bezos, the world's richest man, needs to pay $6.697 billion next year, Facebook CEO Mark & middot; Zuckerberg will pay $4.249 billion. Bill & middot; If Gates' assets were calculated at $107 billion, he would pay $6.379 billion.
Senator Bernie middot of Vermont; Sanders even put forward more radical ideas. He plans to increase taxes by 1% for people with more than $32 million in property, and then gradually increase the tax rate by 8% for people with more than $10 billion in property.
If Sanders' tax policy is adopted since 1982, Amazon CEO Bezos's wealth will be only $52.2 billion, rather than the current net assets of $160 billion. Buffett's assets will be only $11.1 billion, and his current assets are $88.3 billion.
The struggle of the super rich
Seeing the estimated shrinking property, the American rich can no longer stand idly by, and many people bluntly criticize Warren's tax policy.
Gates, who originally supported taxing the rich, also changed his attitude. He pointed out that the 'rich tax' will destroy the social incentive mechanism and have a negative effect on economic development.
Charles & middot, founder, chairman and CEO of Carlson financial, the largest online brokerage in the United States; Schwab said Warren's' wealth tax 'would make the rich lose the motivation to create wealth. He once said in a TV interview: 'I started from scratch because I have enough incentive to create what we create.'
Wall Street bosses also collectively shelled Warren's "wealth tax" plan, Leon, an American hedge fund giant and billionaire; Cooper man once said publicly: 'if Elizabeth & middot; If Warren is elected president, the market will fall by 25%. "
However, Warren believes that this policy will only affect about 75000 American families, but it can raise up to $2.75 trillion in ten years. These tax revenues can fund various social welfare and infrastructure construction.
There are also some super rich people who support the introduction of the 'rich tax'.
June 2019, including Abigail & middot, successor of Disney family; 18 super rich people including Disney issued a joint letter calling on candidates from both parties participating in the 2020 presidential election to support a moderate 'rich man tax' on the richest one thousandth group in the United States.
George Zimmer, a member of the American patriotic millionaires Association, pointed out in an article: 'I have witnessed how our system causes serious inequality to continue, but now I am proud to be & rsquo; Traitors of our class. "
George Zimmer pointed out that the United States needs to re enact a fair and progressive tax law. In this tax law, the richest people have to pay for infrastructure, clean energy, public transportation, early childhood education, etc.
Larry middot, an economist at Harvard University; Summers believes that the operability of wealth tax is debatable. The super rich will easily transfer and hide their wealth through other means, so that the effect of wealth tax is significantly lower than the original prediction.
But Seth and Zuckerman insist that the property of the super rich mainly exists in the form of real estate and stocks, so it is not as easy to hide as expected. They also called for the establishment of a public protection bureau to help the IRS combat tax evasion.
Voych, Professor of economics at Columbia University & middot; Kopzuk said: 'the wealth tax may cause some funds to flow from the open market to investment channels with much more difficult valuation. In the open market, they (assets) can easily be valued, but this (wealth tax) may encourage the rich to invest with higher risk and higher expected return. "