Posted on 09/24/2019 11:18:51 PM PDT by 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.
These guys didn’t get where they are by being idiots. When and if Bernie implemented his plan, rest assured that these fellows would find ways of NOT paying the aforementioned amounts by whatever means necessary (i.e., finagling exemptions, moving out of the country, the sky’s the limit).
$9 billion (adjusted for loopholes) = $37.53
Bezos and his liberal paper.... these idiot billionaire libs still do not seem to think it smells enough of communism.
Ok, whoppteedo Bernie, it totals to not even 100 billions. A drop in the bucket.
Gee- $100 BILLION DOLLARS in taxes- guess what? We throw over $600 BILLION DOLLARS away on illegals every single year!
Get a life dems- taxing billionaires is NOT going to pay for your idiotic ‘free everything’ agendas!
I may take the Singaporean real estate agent’s exam if this passes. 6% of a huge sum is a huge sum.
We already have a tax system that forces corporations to keep profits overseas, why not do the same with wealthy people? We will enjoy a small “tax collection windfall” for a couple years, followed by steady declines as the wealthy keep their fortunes out of the reach of the IRS.
Unless Forbes list is entirely wrong, I do not see how this could possibly be a true statement. Shouldn't Bezos be in that top 50 list of richest Americans? If so, the statement implies that Bezos would pay more than his own net worth.
Right, I agree. They say he’ll pay $9 billion his first year. That’s not more than the net worth of Bill Gates, much less the other 49 top richest combined.
Oops, nothing about combined in there. But I see what you’re saying. Under Sanders, Bezos would pay more than anyone else would have to pay, but that’s hardly worth mentioning. Of course, he would have to pay more. He’s worth more. But he’s not going to have to pay more than anyone’s net worth, at least not those in the top ten or so.
I like these taxes.
These billionaires are your enemies. Tax them to death.
Meh. Chump change compared to what Bernie wants to spend.
All Bezos etal would need to do is technically qualify as not living in the country by living offshore for the relevant number of months.
These folks have multiple houses, can buy many more as needed, and they can be anywhere in the world.
This is like herding cats—it sounds good until you actually try to do it!
Yes, that's why Sanders says "bilionaires should not exist". He wants them dead. There's a problem however, their wealth is not cash in a mattress and will be pulled from the market and venture funds. There will be a lot fewer well-funded startups. The startups will be uncompetitive. Technology will stagnate. The economy as a whole will stagnate.
I worked for a wealthy guy once. He put most of his wealth into salaries to give the new company a chance. It failed but not before producing technology that was bought up and still exists today. That would not have happened with a wealth tax, and I would have had two years less of meaningful employment.
Some things and some principles are more important than the economy.
These people are selling the nation out, censoring you, lying to you, propagandizing you and your children, crushing your values, importing third-worlders to replace you, and it comes down to dollars and cents, for people on this forum???
The Amish have it right. Community, family, and nation are more important than money. I’ll take the cut in the standard of living if I can get my nation back.
You need to swap nation and money in your statement...
Two of the biggest enenies of America are the media and big government. By confiscating money from billionaires you will enlarge the government. Second, not all billionaires are our enemies. On the list in the article is (at the very least) the remaining Koch brother. When you confiscate money from him you are taking money fro a guy who supports American values.
Another thing I would add is that other enemies of America include overseas billionaires who will not be subject to this wealth confiscation.
You do not understand innovation at all. Yes, I was paid very well to invent things for two years to (hopefully) make my multi-millionaire benefactor even more wealthy. In the end about 20 of us failed and he ended up a lot less wealthy. However my motivation is not "dollars and cents" as you implied. It is innovation and MAGA.
OK then Bernie, so then where do you get the trillions to pay for your programs when they're gone? BTW, it will take far less than 15 years for them to get their wealth out of the US. Billionaires aren't that dumb, you know.
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