March 12, 2021

Market Place: Sen. Elizabeth Warren on her new wealth tax bill and how to enforce it

In 2020, while millions of Americans struggled with job loss and economic turmoil due to the coronavirus pandemic, the richest 100 Americans’ fortunes grew by $598 billion. This is the backdrop for the wealth tax introduced by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., last week.

The Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act, co-sponsored in the House by Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., would impose a 2% tax on individual net worth above $50 million and an additional 1% surtax on net worth above $1 billion. Payments would begin in 2023 based on wealth in 2022. University of California, Berkeley economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman estimate the bill would raise $3 trillion over the first 10 years, and would cover around 100,000 families.

“Keep in mind that the 2 cent wealth tax is about putting that money where it’ll really go to work,” Warren told “Marketplace Morning Report” host David Brancaccio. “It’s about money we can put straight back into this economy where it will build real opportunity, where it will give more of our children, more of our young people, a real chance to get started in this economy.”

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Read the full article here.


By:  David Brancaccio and Rose Conlon
Source: Market Place