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Rep. Katie Porter Explains Biden's Billionaire Tax - YouTube
Channel: MSNBC
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right now billionaires pay an average
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rate of eight percent on their total
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income eight percent that's the average
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they pay
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now i'm a capitalist but uh just i want
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i if you make a billion bucks great
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just pay your fair share pay a little
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bit
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a firefighter and a teacher
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pay more than double
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double the tax rate that a billionaire
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pays
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that's not right
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that's not fair
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that was the president today unveiling
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what the administration is calling the
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billionaire minimum income tax as part
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of the president's fiscal year 2023
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budget proposal the tax targets the 700
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wealthiest americans the administration
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says the new tax for the super wealthy
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quote would only apply to the wealthiest
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100th of one percent
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of households those with more than 100
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million dollars and over half the
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revenue would come from billionaires
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alone it would ensure that they pay at
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least 20 of their total income in
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federal income taxes the tax would raise
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is projected to raise 361 billion
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dollars over 10 years economist gabriel
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zuckman at the university of california
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berkeley estimates that the richest
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person in the world elon musk would pay
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an additional 50 billion dollars in
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federal taxes jeff bezos would pay an
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additional 35 billion dollars and mark
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zuckerberg would pay an additional 16
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billion dollars joining us now is
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democratic representative katie porter
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of california she's member of the house
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oversight committee and the deputy chair
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of the house progressive caucus thank
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you very much for joining us tonight
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congressman porter
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how
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how will this tax work
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since it's aimed at uh
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at wealth as opposed to income
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so the basic idea here is that
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billionaires earn income that escapes
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the ordinary tax system for most of us a
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dollar we earn is a dollar that we put
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on our tax returns but for the ultra
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wealthy when they earn an extra dollar
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it's a dollar that they're able to defer
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taxation on and set aside often for
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decades or generations and avoid
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taxation so what this really does is
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just accelerate those taxes so that
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they're paid evenly as they are earned
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which is exactly what happens to the
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rest of us
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but so this taxes uh gains for example
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gains earned in the stock market we we
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see reports all the time that people
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like elon musk just his wealth just
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increased by you know a few billion
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dollars here a few billion dollars there
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but that's just happening on paper that
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wealth could also go down
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if the stock goes down so it hasn't been
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the wealth hasn't been realized it
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hasn't been collected by selling the
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stock
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so
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how do you get at what you're trying to
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tax here
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so you would simply look at what is
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their total
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realized um income the sort of normal
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income that the rest of the rest of us
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have then you look at what is their
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unrealized income so what is the value
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of the stocks and bonds and liquid
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investments that they hold at tax time
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and to be clear those those amounts can
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go up and down but so can the rest of us
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can have incomes that go up and down
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throughout the year we pay taxes on what
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we have at the end of the year over the
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year and they get in the phase in at the
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beginning of this tax they have up to
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nine years to pay the initial amount
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owed and then after that they would have
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five years to make any additional
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payments to be clear this is a minimum
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tax
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if you are an ultra wealthy individual
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and believe me if you're one of these
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handful of people in this country you
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know it um if you are one of the handful
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of people in that point zero one percent
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then this simply makes sure that you're
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paying no
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less than twenty percent of your taxes
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if you're already paying twenty percent
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of your taxes and your income and taxes
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this tax doesn't do anything to you this
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is simply about making sure that we hit
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that minimum of 20 percent
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and it so it functions uh much like a
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property tax the people own property say
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in california in your state that
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property is assessed the government
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decides uh we're gonna tax it on a basis
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of the house being worth a million
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dollars say uh so at some point there
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has to be some kind of assessment each
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year
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of the wealth uh that is being taxed in
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this program does the irs
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know how to do that
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the irs definitely knows how to do this
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we have a very skilled workforce at the
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irs we simply need to give them the
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resources that they need to carry this
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out and when we when people say well you
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know they they that money that stock
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that they got um they don't have it yet
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it could go down believe you me they
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spend like they have it they still have
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the asset the value could go up and down
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and remember this applies to liquid
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assets so you could sell portion of the
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stock if you needed to to be able to pay
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this tax
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there's nothing that you're going to
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have to do other than simply pay on what
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you earn and receiving those stock
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benefits is income believe you me if you
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offered the average american would you
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like some facebook stock would you like
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some a share of tesla stock they would
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understand that that is a valuable asset
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our top tax bracket now is somewhere
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above 500 000
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uh in world war ii we had a top tax
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bracket of 5 million dollars
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it has always been
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strange to me as these incomes and these
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wealth levels continue to explode
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that we continue to hold the income tax
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top bracket
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down at this very very low level uh
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compared to where the super wealth
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really is
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well but to be clear one of the reasons
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that we need to approach taxation
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through this minimum wealth tax is that
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many of these people with an army of
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very talented lawyers and accountants
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and through very careful ways that they
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structure what they receive
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from the corporations or places that
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they work or the businesses that they
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own they may not have very high regular
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incomes they may get most of their pay
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for instance in stock and that's why
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even if we raised the top tax bracket
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higher and we probably should it was
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hard to think about how high you would
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have to go to capture someone like elon
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musk or jeff bezos and the they also
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have ways of borrowing against the
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unrealized returns in these uh in these
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gains that they're making so that they
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actually have the cash to use
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without having
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quote on paper realized the game they
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absolutely have the means to pay these
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taxes and that's partly why they're
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being given nine years to be able to do
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so the rest of us have to find that
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money to pay any tax that we owe by
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april 15th um this is going to be a
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nine-year phase-in for these folks to
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owe it um to pay up what they owe and
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the really the idea here is the rest of
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us like i said you we earn a dollar we
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put that dollar on the tax return just
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because the ultra wealthy are receiving
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their income in a different form they're
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receiving it in stocks rather than in
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cash doesn't mean that what they're
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receiving doesn't have value and it
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doesn't mean it shouldn't be taxed
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representative reporter we look forward
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to seeing you in a debate with a
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republican who's running on the platform
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of the republican senate campaign
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committee which is to increase taxes
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on the lowest income earners in america
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katie porter thank you very much for
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joining us tonight
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thank you
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[Music]
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you
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