U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Congressman Don Beyer (D-VA-08) reintroduced their Millionaires Surtax legislation, the aim being to help close the gap between the wealthy and everyday Americans and raise significant revenue to make new investments that will grow the economy and protect working families.
The Millionaires Surtax would apply an additional 10-percentage point tax to incomes above $2 million for married couples or above $1 million for individuals. It would apply equally to wages and salaries as well as to capital gains and other investment income.
The bill, which is co-sponsored by Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), would increase federal revenue by $634 billion over 10 years and would only impact the richest 0.2 percent.
It is a practical, mainstream approach to raising significant revenue that doesn’t require a major new tax overhaul – and avoids some of the common loopholes that the wealthy often try to exploit in order to game the system.
“Right now, everyday Americans are shouldering our nation’s tax burdens, while many of the very richest skate by without paying their fair share. This is fundamentally backwards – and creates a growing opportunity gap that is harder and harder for American families to overcome. It’s time to right this wrong. The Millionaires Surtax is one step we can take to invest in policies that bring prosperity and opportunity to all Americans,” Van Hollen said.
“The Millionaires Surtax is a sensible plan to restore fairness to the tax code, fight rising inequality, and fund important priorities for the American people,” Beyer said. “The Republican tax cuts, as we feared, led to enormous benefits for the wealthy. Our legislation would require the wealthiest to pay their fair share and help prevent tax avoidance, which has been an enormous problem in enforcing our tax code. It would also benefit working people by providing revenue to help offset the cost of key legislative initiatives, for instance infrastructure investments. This is an idea whose time has come.”
“There’s no reason why the richest people in the country should be paying less in taxes than the workers that they employ. Period,” Brown said. “Corporate greed is fundamental to the Wall Street business model and until we change that, the richest people in the country are going to continue exploiting loopholes so they don’t have to pay their fair share.”
According to polling by Hart Research Associates, the proposal has overwhelming support – 73 percent support a Millionaires Surtax, with 76 percent support from independents and moderates.
Even a majority of Trump voters (57 percent) and Republicans (53 percent) favor the policy.
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Chris Graham
