The three Democrats unveiled the ultra-millionaire tax law Monday morning. It would levy a 2% annual tax on household and trust equity between $ 50 million and $ 1 billion as well as an annual surtax of 1% on assets over $ 1 billion, for a global tax 3% on billionaires.
“As Congress makes additional plans to help our economy, the wealth tax should be at the top of the list to help pay for these plans because of the huge revenue it would generate,” Warren said in a statement. “This is money that should be invested in child care and early childhood education, K-12, infrastructure, which are all priorities for President Biden and Democrats in Congress.”
About 100,000 American families are said to be subject to the tax, which would bring in about $ 3 trillion over a decade, according to analysis provided by lawmakers. It was headed by Professors Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman of the University of California at Berkeley, well known for their leftist work on income and wealth inequality.
The income estimate is higher than what they provided to Warren during the campaign in part because wealth at the top, especially among billionaires, has grown over the past two years and is expected to continue to rise, have they declared. Two years ago, they estimated it would bring in $ 2.75 trillion over a decade and affect 75,000 households.
Taxing wealth, however, could be very difficult to do. One wonders if this is authorized by the American Constitution, legal scholars falling on both sides of the argument.
In addition, wealth taxes can be difficult to administer because the wealthy often have assets that are difficult to value.