Republicans are upset that the IRS will hire more agents to catch tax dodgers. Why?
Follow the money to trace the connection between tax dodging billionaires and political donations to the GOP.
- Who makes the most but pays the least pays the least taxes? 26 of US’s Richest Billionaires Paid 4.8 Percent Tax Rate.
- Who is the biggest recipient of donations from hedge fund billionaires? Republicans.
- Who was the biggest beneficiary of the Trump/Republican tax cuts? Billionaires.
- Who has proposed abolishing the IRS altogether? Rand Paul (R-KY).
- Who demanded billionaires be granted more tax cuts before he'd sign a pending bill? Ron Johnson (R-WI).
- Who is pushing a bill to deny the IRS access to banking records? Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Tim Scott (R-SC).
"The Democrats just passed this plan to hire an additional 87,000 IRS agents... our country needs prayers." said Mike Lee (R-UT) - MSN
Follow the money
How billionaires dodge paying their fair share of taxes
Billionaire business owners deployed lobbyists to make sure Trump’s 2017 tax bill was tailored to their benefit. Confidential IRS records show the windfall that followed. (ProPublica).
"26 of the nation’s richest billionaires paid an average effective federal income tax rate of just 4.8%. Collectively, they paid just $24 billion in taxes — a tiny amount compared to an immense growth of $500 billion in their wealth over those six years. Billionaires are able to dodge taxes on a large portion of their wealth due to tax laws allowing them to accrue wealth largely tax-free through investments and other sources. The taxes they did pay are on their relatively low taxable incomes — which Americans for Tax Fairness calculates in this case to be $132.2 billion, or only about a fourth of their wealth gain." - TruthOut
- Elon Musk, now the world’s richest man, according to Forbes, paid a tax rate of only 2.1 percent
- Jeff Bezos world’s second richest person paid an effective federal tax rate of 1.1 percent.
- Conservative bankrollers Charles Koch paid only 1.3 percent.
- The world’s fifth richest person, Warren Buffett, paid 0.1 percent in income taxes.
- Mark Zuckerberg, the 15th richest people paid an effective federal tax rate of 1.1 percent.
"Leave my billionaire donors alone"
- Cut taxes for billionaires. Ron Johnson (R-WI)
- Don't let the IRS see bank records. "Senator Rubio (R-FL) and Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) introduced the Prohibiting IRS Financial Surveillance Act to prevent the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from implementing Democrats’ plan to give the agency access to the financial transaction information of virtually every American." - Senate
- Abolish the IRS. Rand Paul (R-KY) even made a video to push for killing the IRS.
- Don't let the IRS hire more agents. "The Democrats just passed this plan to hire an additional 87,000 IRS agents... our country needs prayers." said Mike Lee (R-UT) MSN
More tax cuts for the rich
"Johnson’s demand was simple: In exchange for his vote, the bill must sweeten the tax break for a class of companies that are known as pass-throughs, since profits pass through to their owners. Johnson praised such companies as “engines of innovation.” Behind the scenes, the senator pressed top Treasury Department officials on the issue, emails and the officials’ calendars show. Johnson’s ultimatum produced results. Trump personally called the senator to beg for his support, and the bill’s authors fattened the tax cut for these businesses. Johnson flipped to a “yes” and claimed credit for the change. The bill passed. Confidential tax records, however, reveal that Johnson’s last-minute maneuver benefited two families more than almost any others in the country — both worth billions and both among the senator’s biggest donors. - ProPublica
Dick and Liz Uihlein of packaging giant Uline, along with roofing magnate Diane Hendricks, together had contributed around $20 million to groups backing Johnson’s 2016 reelection campaign."
How does billionaires dodging taxes hurt you?
America’s billionaire bonanza demonstrates the flaws in our current economic and tax systems President Biden and Democrats are advancing a budget package... it will aid communities and working families by making healthcare, eldercare, childcare, housing and education more affordable, investing in clean energy, expanding the Child Tax Credit and providing 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave. It will be paid for by making the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share of taxes, and it will not raise taxes on anyone making under $400,000 a year.
“Billionaires have reaped an unseemly windfall at a time when hundreds of thousands of people have lost their lives and livelihoods.” said Chuck Collins, of the Institute for Policy Studies, author of The Wealth Hoarders. “We should use this moment of extreme wealth inequality to fix a tax system tilted in favor of the wealthy and large corporations.” - Americans for Tax Fairness
TakeAway: Follow the money to see how billionaires get tax cuts by donating to Republicans. VOTE so everyone pays their fair share.
Deepak
DemLabs
Image credit: A Black high school student, Walter Gadsden, 15, is attacked by a police dog during a civil rights demonstration in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963, in this photo by Bill Hudson. These and other iconic images from the Birmingham protests shocked many Americans and helped bring an end to segregation laws. BILL HUDSON/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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