The richest of the 1 percent have a message for the 2020 presidential candidates: Tax us.
Financier George Soros and heiress Abigail Disney are among the 19 billionaires who published an open letter Monday to Republican and Democratic hopefuls saying that they “support a moderate wealth tax on the fortunes of the richest 1/10 of the richest 1% of Americans — on us.”
”The next dollar of new tax revenue should come from the most financially fortunate, not from middle-income and lower-income Americans,” they wrote.
Along with Soros and Disney, signers include Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, Molly Munger, daughter of Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman Charlie Munger, and members of the Pritzker family — along with one anonymous signer.
”America has a moral, ethical and economic responsibility to tax our wealth more,” they wrote in the letter.
A wealth tax could raise funds to address the climate change crisis, bolster health care measures, curb income inequality and provide relief for those with student loans.
”The concept of a wealth tax isn’t new: Millions of middle-income Americans already pay a wealth tax each year in the form of property taxes on their primary form of wealth — their home,” the letter says. “The kind of moderate tax on the richest 1/10 of 1% that we support just asks us to pay a small wealth tax on the primary source of our wealth as well.”
The letter noted that a number of Democratic candidates — Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke and Rep. Tim Ryan — support the idea.
Warren has already proposed a plan to tax 75,000 of the wealthiest families in the country.
It would put a 2-cent tax on the dollar on assets over $50 million and an additional levy of 1 percent on assets over $1 billion.
The tax would raise nearly $3 trillion over 10 years.
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