• THE PLAN

WE NEED TO ACT NOW.

Inequality in America is out of control. While millions of Americans have spent the last several years struggling just to survive through the COVID-19 pandemic, an economic downturn, and rampant inflation, the ultra-rich are doing better than ever. American billionaires alone are almost $2 trillion richer than they were just a few short years ago.

The Patriotic Millionaires (and most Americans) believe that if we want to get our country and economy back on track, Congress must make millionaires, billionaires, and corporations pay what they owe and dismantle all special treatment given to the uber-rich in the federal tax code. Here’s how to do it.

THE MAJORITY OF AMERICANS FAVOR RAISING TAXES ON THE WEALTHY AND CORPORATIONS.

THE PATRIOTIC MILLIONAIRES’ PLAN:

Collect the Money Millionaires and Billionaires Already Owe America

Many millionaires and billionaires never actually pay the taxes they legally owe. The “tax gap” – the amount owed to the IRS that is never paid – is close to $1 trillion a year, mostly from the richest people in the country. And because politicians (working on behalf of their donors) refuse to adequately staff and fund the IRS, most wealthy tax cheats will never be caught.

➔ The Patriotic Millionaires’ Plan:

  • Fully fund the IRS, with no less than $80 billion in additional funding for the agency over the next decade ✓
    • The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, passed on a party-line vote, allocated $80 billion for IRS funding, including nearly $45 billion specifically earmarked for increased enforcement targeting wealthy criminal tax cheats
  • Create a special audit division to focus on wealthy tax cheats and mandate a set percentage of annual audits for multi-millionaires and billionaires.

Tax All Income Over $1 Million Equally

In the game of Their Money v. Your Sweat, Their Money is winning. Right now, working people in America pay almost twice the tax rate as investors do because “ordinary” income (income from a job) is taxed up to 37% while “capital gains” income (income from investments) is never taxed more than 20%. Heirs to multi-million dollar fortunes often pay no taxes at all.

So even if you make the same amount of money as a multi-millionaire, you end every year worse off because of the tax code.

➔ The Patriotic Millionaires’ Plan:

  • Tax all income over $1 million equally, whether it’s “ordinary” income (income from a job), capital gains or qualified dividend income (from investments), or inheritance income (from someone dying).

Create a “Billionaires Income Tax” on Unrealized Capital Gains

Billionaires do not generate the vast majority of their wealth from their paycheck, instead most of it is tied up in assets like stocks, property, and other capital. While those assets continue to increase in value and make billionaires even richer, none of that added value is taxed unless the asset is sold. To avoid paying taxes, billionaires have used shady, but perfectly legal, practices like borrowing large sums of money in personal loans with very low-interest rates, and not selling any of their assets to generate cash.

➔ The Patriotic Millionaires’ Plan:

  • Use “mark to market” taxation to annually tax the gains of tradable assets for all taxpayers whose wealth exceeds $1 billion. This only impacts the top 0.0005% of households.
  • For non-tradable assets (businesses, property, etc) taxes can be deferred until the assets are sold, with interest charged for every year that the asset increases in value.

End The “Bracket Racket”

Right now, the federal tax code treats people who make $650,000 a year the same as people who make $650 million a year. That’s nuts. Yes, $650,000 is a lot of money, but it is not nearly as much money as $650 million, and the tax code should reflect that.

➔ The Patriotic Millionaires’ Plan:

  • Add several new tax brackets beginning at $1 million and going up to $100 million. Institute higher taxes on all income over $1 million beginning with a 40% rate at $1 million and going up to a 90% for incomes over $100 million.

Eliminate Special Tax Treatment for the Heirs of Millionaires & Billionaires

Millionaires and billionaires can pass on millions of dollars worth of cash, real estate, and other assets to their children completely tax free. This is both unfair and a threat to our democracy (if we wanted a permanent aristocracy, we should have stayed in England).

➔ The Patriotic Millionaires’ Plan:

  • End the Stepped-Up Basis.
  • Limit 1031 Exchanges.
  • Reform GRATs.
  • Tax inheritance income at ordinary income rates over $1 million.

Institute a Wealth Tax

Right now, homeowners in America pay a wealth tax on their assets in the form of a property tax on their homes. Millionaires and billionaires who own yachts, racehorses, priceless art, and millions of dollars of stock pay no wealth tax on their assets at all.

➔ The Patriotic Millionaires’ Plan:

  • Institute a wealth tax on all assets over $50 million.
  • Create a global wealth registry to prevent millionaires and billionaires from hiding their wealth in secret tax havens overseas.
  • UPDATE: The Patriotic Millionaires recently released a proposal for the OLIGARCH Act, which would differ from other wealth tax proposals by setting the threshold for taxation wealth at a percentage of the median household wealth in America, rather than a set number. This puts the focus firmly on reducing inequality, rather than raising revenue.

Make Multinational Corporations Pay Taxes

Corporate profits are at an all-time high and corporate taxes are at an all-time low. Last year, thanks to a variety of loopholes and legal shenanigans, 55 profitable corporations paid no federal income taxes at all. Companies that report huge earnings to their shareholders often report no earnings, or even losses, to the IRS. Even worse, the Republican Tax Code actually provides a tax incentive for US corporations to move jobs and plants overseas.

➔ The Patriotic Millionaires’ Plan:

  • Raise the domestic corporate income tax rate from 21% to 28%.
  • Implement a global minimum tax of 15%.
    • UPDATE: The Inflation Reduction Act implemented a domestic corporate minimum tax of 15% on corporations reporting over $1 billion in book income. This is a significant change, but falls short of what’s needed to align with the prevailing OECD agreement.
  • Reform the corporate tax code so that American businesses cannot pretend to do business somewhere other than where they actually do business.
  • Eliminate tax incentives that reward companies for moving jobs, plants, and equipment overseas.

JOIN THE PATRIOTIC MILLIONAIRES’ FIGHT

Patriotic Millionaires want to live in a country with a basic sense of fairness, where millionaires don’t get special treatment just because they’re rich. The “Other” Millionaires want special treatment, they think they deserve special treatment. They insist the economy will collapse if they pay a penny more in taxes. Nonsense. Nothing is going to collapse if millionaires pay their fair share (except for possibly an over-inflated ego or two). Join the fight.