The Facts
- Pres. Biden has called upon Congress to pass a minimum tax for billionaires as part of a renewed effort to jumpstart his domestic social spending plans while reducing the deficit.
- The "Billionaire Minimum Income Tax" calls for American families with assets valued at over $100M to pay federal taxes amounting to at least 20% of their combined income and unrealized gains in liquid assets such as stocks and bonds.
- The plan intends to address the disparity between Americans who pay income taxes on wages and the wealthy who often pay lower effective tax rates because their wealth is based on the rising value of their assets rather than earned income.
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The Spin
Conservative narrative
This is a short-sighted class warfare aimed at soaking true innovators by forcing them to play by a different set of rules than everyone else, namely to pay taxes on money that they haven't even earned yet. Once the precedent is set - that unrealized capital gains can be taxed - it won't be long before the Democrats come after the assets of the middle class too.
Progressive narrative
Income taxes have become regressive. They effectively capture a percentage of the income of Americans who earn wages, but they aren't effective at taxing income made on capital investments, which is how the very wealthy keep getting wealthier. 64% of Americans support a wealth tax, and it's high time that we tried to distribute the burden of our tax system more fairly.
Public Figures
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