“My secretary pays more taxes than I do,” once said the ‘oracle of Omaha’, Warren Buffett, who has defended on more than one occasion that the richest contribute more capital to the state coffers. Today, this possibility could become a reality. US President Joe Biden intends to introduce a tax for billionaires in the budgets for 2023.
The open war of the Democrat because the billionaires increase their contributions seems to have found an end, according to several US media. Next Monday, March 28, Biden could announce a minimum tax rate of 20% that will affect the richest 0.01% of the country, as reported by The New York Times.
The initiative would be called “Minimum Income Tax for Billionaires” and would affect homes with an equity value in excess of $100 million.
In the same way, this 20% would affect the liquid assets of these peoplesuch as bonds and stocks, which are currently only taxed when sold.
However, this tax will not affect those who already pay a tax rate higher than 20%while the rest will have to pay the difference between their current rate and this one.
“This minimum tax would ensure that the wealthiest Americans no longer pay a lower tax rate than teachers and firefighters,” reads a White House document to which he has had access. The Washington Post.
On the other hand, according to Associated Pressthis measure would reduce the projected federal deficit by $1 trillion for the next 10 years.
It will generate 360,000 million in revenue
“Over the last 40 years, the rich have gotten richer and too many corporations have lost a sense of responsibility to their workers, their communities and the country,” Biden said last September.
Many voices of the Republican opposition have been raised in recent months to stop this measure, claiming that the rich do pay a large amount of taxes, and that this initiative will have a negative impact on the economy and employment.
For their part, from the Democratic side they point out that the great contribution that the billionaires will make will boost the economy. Specifically, the Biden administration estimates that the tax would generate about 360,000 million in income over the next decade, as pointed out by The Washington Post.
However, more than half of the collection would come from those estates of more than one billion dollars.
The Musk Example
To understand the context, look at the tax bill of the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, who has recently said he believes Vladimir Putin is worth more than his own.
The CEO of Tesla paid the US coffers about 12,000 million last year. However, this unusual amount is due to the 15 million options that the billionaire has exercised over his shares, precisely to cover the taxes derived from this type of operation.
Instead, Musk only paid a total of 455 million in taxes from 2014 to 2018even though his wealth grew by $13.9 billion, according to a ProPublica investigation published in June.
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