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"Tax me if you can": Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on a poster in the USA
Photo: JONATHAN ERNST / REUTERS
The US tax system has numerous loopholes – which the extremely wealthy, in particular, repeatedly exploit.
A study by the US government last fall found that between 2010 and 2018, 400 billionaire households paid an average of just 8.2 percent in taxes on their income - a rate that is often well below that of many US households.
Apparently countermeasures should now be taken.
According to media reports, the administration of US President Joe Biden will propose a minimum tax for the wealthiest US citizens in its draft budget for 2023.
The "Billionaire Minimum Income Tax" would require the approximately 700 US households with assets of more than $100 million to pay at least 20 percent of their total income, the Washington Post and other US media reported on Saturday Citing a White House document.
"This minimum tax would ensure that the wealthiest Americans would no longer pay a lower tax rate than teachers and firefighters," says the document cited by the Post.
The new measure, which requires Congressional approval to come into effect, could bring in up to $360 billion in new revenue over 10 years, the document cited by the Post said.
However, because of the extremely tight majority, approval by Congress is by no means a matter of course.
Musk and the billions
For example, Tesla founder Elon Musk would have to pay $50 billion in additional taxes under the new regulation, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos would have to pay around $35 billion more, according to economist Gabriel Zucman.
Musk had benefited, among other things, from the stock regulation described above.
Because he hardly paid any taxes, Musk repeatedly got into conflict with politicians.
On Twitter, he had public arguments with Democrats Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
Warren recently called him a "free rider", partly because Musk's companies have been funded by the state in the past.
At the end of 2021, the Tesla boss announced that he would pay around eleven billion in taxes this year.
In view of the super-rich tax that is now being considered, this sum seems almost manageable.
jok/AFP