'The IRS only enforces the laws that are on the books,' one expert says. 'Congress needs to change the laws if we don't like the outcomes.'
CEO Jeff Bezos, founder of the private space-faring firm Blue Origin and the richest man in the world according to Bloomberg data, was among the billionaires whose tax returns were obtained and analyzed by the nonprofit news organization ProPublica.A mobile billboard calling for higher taxes on the ultra-wealthy depicts an image of billionaire businessman Jeff Bezos near the U.S. Capitol on May 17, 2021, in Washington, D.C.
"The income tax is tilted in favor of the rich and capital holders over workers, and the rich are different than you and I, they hold a lot of capital and we tax that capital lightly," Rosenthal added."We wait for them to actually sell their assets before paying a tax." By contrast, even paltry earnings on a traditional savings account, with interest rates at a fraction of a percent, can be taxed if they surpass a certain level.Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg attend the"Tech for Good" Summit at the Elysee Palace in Paris, on May 23, 2018.
"That's one thing that can explain some of it, the second are other provisions of the code that we've created to incentivize certain behavior," he added."One that's big is the charitable contribution deduction that folks can use to give to causes they believe in, but then also reduce how much tax they're paying on their income."
Pursuing a progressive consumption tax -- taxing based on consumption rather than income -- could be a better policy approach to raising the taxes the wealthy pay, Watson argues, and comes with less administrative and economic challenges than imposing a wealth tax.
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