Jeff Bezos would pay $9 billion a year in wealth taxes under Bernie Sanders’ plan

CNBC ^ | 9/24/19 | Robert Frank

[LibWhacker]

Sen. Bernie Sanders announces a wealth tax that would hit multibillionaires like Jeff Bezos especially hard.

Rival presidential candidate, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, has a plan that would impose a tax of 2% of wealth over $50 million and 3% on wealth over $1 billion.

Sanders’ plan starts at a lower wealth level – taxing those worth $32 million at 1% – so his tax would hit about 180,000 families while Warren’s would affect about 75,000 households.

The sliding scale of the Sanders plan quickly escalates for wealth over $500 million, which would be taxed at 4%. Here are estimates for the wealth tax bills for several billionaires under this proposal.

Jeff Bezos would pay about $9 billion in taxes this year under Sen. Bernie Sanders’ proposed wealth tax.

As part of his presidential primary campaign and efforts to outflank the rise of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sanders announced a wealth tax that would hit multibillionaires like Bezos especially hard. The Amazon CEO would pay more in annual wealth taxes than the net worth of the 50 richest Americans as listed by Forbes.

“I don’t think billionaires should exist,” Sanders told The New York Times. If his tax plan were put into effect, billionaires would lose half their wealth in 15 years, provided all other factors (like their stock prices or business values) remained constant.

While Warren’s proposal also taxes billionaires at a higher rate than multimillionaires, Sanders’ plan, announced Tuesday, is far more punitive to those at the very top — reflecting the strong support for taxing the rich among certain voters.

Warren’s plan would impose a tax of 2% of wealth over $50 million and 3% on wealth over $1 billion. Sanders’ plan starts at a lower wealth level – taxing those worth $32 million at 1% – so his tax would hit about 180,000 families versus about 75,000 households under Warren’s proposal.

The sliding scale of the Sanders plan also quickly escalates for wealth over $500 million, which would be taxed at 4%. Wealth over $10 billion would be taxed at a rate of 8% — more than four times the highest wealth-tax rates that European countries once imposed. The high rates at the top are the main reason Sanders projects his tax would raise $4.35 trillion over 10 years, compared with Warren’s, which is estimated to raise $2.6 trillion.

Here are some examples of the annual wealth tax bill that some of today’s top billionaires would pay, in addition to whatever income taxes, property taxes and payroll taxes they already pay.

2019 wealth tax bill estimates

Jeff Bezos — $9 billion

Bill Gates — $8.6 billion

Warren Buffett — $6.6 billion

Mark Zuckerberg — $5.8 billion

Larry Page — $4.8 billion

Charles Koch — $4.8 billion

Larry Ellison — $4.7 billion

Sergey Brin — $4.6 billion

Rob Walton — $4.2 billion

Jim Walton — $4.2 billion

Note: Estimates are based on the net worth of each individual as reported by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

[Josa]

Unemployment will skyrocket. Meaning more federal dollars going to social services and less coming into the government.

We would quickly be living the 2nd Great Depression.

Was thinking of moving but living in a coastal town at least means we could feed ourselves from the intracoastal waterways.

[I want the USA back]

Not a tax. Confiscation of savings/investments/property. “Tax” is on income, earned/unearned.

Europe has this. Seizure of accumulated wealth.

[sushiman]

eff Bezos,Amazon king,richest man in the world,could give each of his 647,000 employees $100,000 and still have $50 billion bucks left.His Whole Foods employees who work 20 hours a week,get health coverage. He’s changing that,now his workers must work 30 hours a week to get health coverage,causing 2,000 of them to lose health coverage !Fluck Amazon !

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

If Amazon/Bezos hadn’t lobbied and used all those tax breaks, and paid some taxes, I doubt this would be an issue. He knows it’s wrong.

[palmer]

I’ve filled out the forms for an American relative. You have to list everything you own, no exceptions. Then they take a small percentage of your total “wealth” if you are above the threshold. The threshold keeps going down by law and by inflation.