Friday, July 19, 2019

Congress pass the "For the 99.8 Percent Act" to tax ultra-wealthy

Petition to Congress:
"Tax the ultra-wealthy few by passing the For the 99.8 Percent Act."
Add your name:
Sign the petition ►
Over the last decade, Republicans exempted more and more millionaires from the estate tax. A married couple can now keep $22 million from being taxed. Fewer than 2,000 families are now subject to the tax, and thousands of super-rich families are dodging millions in taxes.The Trump Tax Scam was a Wall Street handout on steroids. On top of handing freebies to multinational corporations, it gave millions in tax cuts to the richest of the rich by cutting the estate tax.
Sen. Bernie Sanders is teaming up with Rep. Jimmy Gomez to undo the damage and force America's ultra-wealthy to pay their fair share, and they need our help.
Just three white men ‒ Jeff Bezos of Amazon, investor Warren Buffett and Microsoft's Bill Gates ‒ own as much wealth as the whole bottom half of America. An astonishing $2.9 trillion is in the hands of just 400 people. The top 1%, meanwhile, control 40% of the wealth in our country.2,3  This unequal wealth hoarding starves public services and kills job creation, leaving America sicker, less educated and less prosperous. The estate tax was meant to prevent this kind of wealth from being passed down from generation to generation and stop the creation of a new oligarchy.
The For the 99.8 Percent Act would fight massive inequality and inherited wealth by:4
  • Raising taxes on the ultra-wealthy few, starting with estates worth more than $3.5 million and rising to a 77% tax on inherited wealth over $1 billion.
  • Closing the loopholes that allow many ultra-wealthy families to dodge inheritance taxes altogether.
  • Defying Republican attacks on the estate tax by exempting family farms, most of which are worth less than $1 million, and taxing wealth that rich families gathered through other tax loopholes for the first time.
Senate Republicans are now proposing to eliminate the estate tax completely in yet another giveaway to their wealthy donors. We need to show how many people are determined to resist and willing to fight for a progressive alternative.
Tell Congress: Tax the ultra-wealthy. Raise the estate tax. Click below to sign the petition:
- Heidi Hess, CREDO Action
Add your name:
Sign the petition ►
References:
  1. Matthew Yglesias, "Bernie Sanders’s new plan to supercharge the estate tax, explained," Vox, Jan. 31, 2019.
  2. Avery Anapol, "Study: Wealthiest 1 percent owns 40 percent of country’s wealth," The Hill, Dec. 6, 2017.
  3. Chuck Collins and Josh Hoxie, "Billionaire Bonanza 2018: Inherited Wealth Dynasties of the United States," Institute for Policy Studies, October 2018.
  4. Yglesias, "Bernie Sanders’s new plan to supercharge the estate tax, explained."

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