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Americans Are Sick Of Unfair Taxation

Americans Are Sick Of Unfair Taxation

President Joe Biden has proposed raising taxes on corporations and wealthy Americans to help pay for a series of new initiatives, and so far, that seems to have the support of a majority of Americans, based on recent surveys.

According to a new Pew Research Center survey, for 80% of Americans it is “a significant bother” that some corporations and wealthy people are avoiding their "fair share" of taxes.

“Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are far more likely than Republicans and GOP leaners to say they are bothered “a lot” by the feeling that some corporations don’t pay their fair share in taxes (76% vs. 38%),” the survey says.

Also, just 25% of Democrats surveyed said they are significantly bothered by the taxes they personally pay, compared to 41% of Republicans.

13% of people surveyed express a certain degree of frustration with the feeling that some poor people don’t pay their fair share in taxes as well. 

Last week, President Biden unveiled his $1.8 trillion American Families Plan, which focuses on education and childcare, added to the previous $2 trillion American Jobs Plan, aimed at revamping a $2 trillion investment in infrastructure.

To fund the plan, President Biden plans to raise the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%. That would pretty much unwind the lower corporate rate at 10.5% placed by the previous Trump administration.

The administration estimates stepping up tax enforcement, closing tax loopholes for large corporations that pay zero dollars in taxes, would bring in $700 billion over the next decade.

Biden also wants to raise taxes on single filers with income over $452,700 and couples earning more than $509,300. The proposal will keep to his campaign promise of no tax increases for anyone making $400,000 or less. 

And in the meantime, the plan hopes to create nearly 19 million jobs with a massive infrastructure overhaul.

The plan, the centerpiece of Biden’s agenda to rebuild the economy, will now need to pass Congress, with Republicans lining up against what they call a “Trojan Horse” for social welfare spending and excessive tax increases.

Getting the proposal through Congress could be the biggest challenge of Biden’s new presidency. With that in mind, he has suggested he is ready to negotiate to some extent. 

The Biden administration is not the first to call out the tax unfairness. Just a couple of years ago, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet said that the wealthy should pay more taxes. Saying that he pays a lower tax rate that his secretary, Buffet said “the wealthy are definitely undertaxed relative to the general population.” 

Fellow billionaire Bill Gates has made similar comments, saying that “better education and better health care means that we need to collect more in taxes.”

Even the Patriotic Millionaires are calling for higher taxes. The group’s 200  members, who describe themselves as "proud traitors to their class”, include technology entrepreneurs, software engineers, Wall Street investors, industrialists…

The group welcomed President’s Biden plan saying that high-income earners, wealthy investors, and millionaire heirs have “skated by without paying their fair share for far too long”. 

"The tax hikes proposed by President Biden would reverse decades of our tax code prioritizing wealth over work," Morris Pearl, former managing director at BlackRock and current chair of the Patriotic Millionaires said.

Most Americans wouldn’t be affected by it as there are only 1.8% or Americans making over $400,000 a year.

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