Billionaires Paid Less In Taxes Than Working Class 2018, 1st Time:: Inequality Highest Ever Recorded
- 'American billionaires paid less in taxes in 2018 than the working class, analysis shows — and it's another sign that one of the biggest problems in the US is only getting worse. Business Insider, *Oct. 9, 2019. Excerpts:
In 2018, billionaires paid 23% of their income in federal, state, and local taxes, while the average American paid 28%.
That's according to an analysis of tax data by the University of California at Berkeley's Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman for their upcoming book "The Triumph of Injustice."
Between 1950 and 1980, billionaires paid more than 50% of their income in taxes each year, according to Saez and Zucman. Saez and Zucman, who also serve as advisers to Sen. Elizabeth Warren's presidential campaign, have proposed a moderate wealth tax as a solution to the US's growing wealth gap.
In 2018, billionaires paid a smaller portion of their income in taxes than average Americans. That's the first time that has happened in history.
Billionaires paid 23% of their income in federal, state, and local taxes in 2018, according to an analysis of tax data by the University of California at Berkeley's Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman for their upcoming book "The Triumph of Injustice." The average American, meanwhile, paid 28%. "The US tax system is a giant flat tax — except at the top, where it's regressive," Saez and Zucman wrote in "The Triumph of Injustice." "As a group, and although their individual situations are not all the same, the Trumps, the Zuckerbergs, and the Buffetts of this world pay lower taxes than the teachers and secretaries."..
The wealth gap in America is widening, and even billionaires agree that the system that created their wealth is unsustainable. The top 1% of Americans own 40% of the country's wealth..Income inequality is at the highest level ever recorded, the US Census Bureau said in September. Real median household income grew 0.8%, to $61,937, in 2018, the smallest increase in three years, according to the Census Bureau. The majority of the US economy's growth over the past decade has gone to the wealthy and the owners of financial instruments..
Saez and Zucman have proposed a moderate wealth tax as a solution to the US's growing wealth gap..One of the most frequently cited wealth-tax proposals, Warren's "Ultra-Millionaire Tax," calls for a 2% annual tax on households with a net worth between $50 million and $1 billion and a 3% annual tax on households with a net worth over $1 billion. The idea has support from ultrawealthy and ordinary Americans alike: An Insider poll showed that more than half of the Americans surveyed support Warren's wealth-tax proposal...
More, https://www.businessinsider.com/american-billionaires-paid-less-taxes-than-working-class-wealth-gap-2019-10
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- 'US income inequality jumps to highest level ever recorded,'- Markets, *Sept. 27, 2019.
•Income inequality in the US last year reached its highest level in more than half a century.
•While the economy has expanded steadily over the past decade, it has disproportionately benefited some of the wealthiest Americans.
•In February, Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell said income inequality would be one of the biggest challenges for the US over the next decade.
•Visit the Business Insider homepage for more stories.
Income inequality last year reached its highest level in more than half a century, as a record-long economic expansion continued to disproportionately benefit some of the wealthiest Americans.
A key measure of wealth distribution jumped to 0.485 in 2018, the Census Bureau said Thursday, its highest reading since the so-called Gini index was started in 1967. The gauge, which uses a scale of 0 to 1, stood at 0.482 a year earlier...
More, https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/income-inequality-reached-highest-level-ever-recorded-in-2018-2019-9-1028559996
- Inequality.org, https://inequality.org/facts/income-inequality/
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