For the nation's wealthiest 25, at least one thing in life isn't inevitable- taxes and death? Undoubtedly someone in Silicon Valley is working on that.
Using a trove of leaked IRS data, ProPublica, a non-profit newsgroup, unveiled a flurry of details about how the richest of the rich in America managed to pay little to nothing in income tax between 2014-2018.
According to private data, Tesla's
At the heart of ProPublica's analysis is the notion is that America's elites are taking advantage of a tax code that punishes income and rewards wealth, to the detriment of all.
According to Forbes, the nation's top 25 saw their collective net worth skyrocket by $401 billion between 2014-2018, and yet over that same time, they paid only $13.6 billion in income taxes. Meanwhile, the "average" American saw their net worth expand by $65,000 and saw their tax bills increase to $62,000.
The net effect? According to Forbes, Joe Everyman saw his wealth grow by a measly $3,000, while Jeff Bezos' wealth ballooned by nearly $100 billion.
The report reveals a picture of a wealth gap made wider by an inconsistent and byzantine tax code that taxes labor rather than wealth.
ProPublica's analysis, and its conclusions, could renew calls for a wealth tax, even as President Joe Biden advances one of the most progressive tax agendas in recent political memory.
Chuck Marr, director of federal tax policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, told the New York Times that the data reveals that the marginal tax increases being proposed by Biden may not be enough to rectify the current situation.
"Some of the solutions are often cast as aggressive," he said. "What's really radical is the current circumstances."
The example of investment Mogul, Carl Icahn, who posted number 40 on Forbes' wealthiest American's list in 2017, highlights a favored gimmick of the ultra-rich- borrow against your wealth, deduct the interest paid on these loans and bring your tax liabilities to zero.
According to the data, in 2017, Icahn earned $544 in gross income, yet thanks to an outstanding $1.2 billion loan he had with Bank of America, he paid nothing in taxes.
"I didn't make money because, unfortunately for me, my interest was higher than my whole adjusted income," he told Pro Publica. "If you're a poor person, a rich person, if you are Apple
According to Forbes, in 2011, Bezos managed to cash in on a $4000 tax credit for his children. His net worth that year? $18 billion. However, Bezos effectively zeroed out his tax bill that year by deducting losses on his side investments, the interest payments on his loans, and various "other expenses."
According to the U.S. Tax Code, Bezos made no money in 2011 and has made very little since then, even though he has since claimed the title of the second richest man in the world.
Despite the inherently criminal nature of the disclosure, no doubt the data will renew calls for a wealth tax from lawmakers. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren has advocated for a 2% tax on a person's net worth above 50 million.
In a Tuesday interview, she called the data and its revelations "deeply shocking." "Increasing the personal income tax rate by 2 percent or 10 percent is not going to make any real difference to these multibillionaires," Warren said. "The real action in America is on wealth, not income."
The White House has primarily set aside the notion of a wealth tax, deeming it unworkable, and yet strangely, the idea still hasn't been taken off the table.
"What this data reveals is that the country's wealthiest, who profited immensely during the pandemic, have not been paying their fair share," said Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, chair of the senate finance committee, at hearing to discuss the security implications of the breach.
Wyden then went on to say he had proposals in mind to fix the disparity detailed in the documents. However, when asked for more details after the hearing, he had no specifics.
