Democrats want to raise taxes for billionaires: how much will Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg have to give

Democrats want to pass a new big tax on billionaires. According to a new analysis, taxes paid by billionaires alone will generate $ 500 billion, of which $ 275 billion will be paid by the 10 richest people in the United States. The edition told in more detail Business Insider.

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Economist Gabriel Zucman, a researcher of inequality and taxes for the rich, used data from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Bloomberg Billionaire Index to estimate the capital of various billionaires and extrapolate how much they would pay under the new tax.

Zucman's analysis determined that Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the world's richest person, would receive the largest bill at nearly $50 billion. Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos - the world's richest after Musk - would have to pay up to $44 billion.

Here's how much taxes the top 10 richest people in the United States will pay:

• Elon Musk - $50 billion
• Jeff Bezos - $44 billion
• Bill Gates - $19 billion
• Larry Page - $29 billion
• Mark Zuckerberg - $29 billion
• Sergey Brin - $28 billion
• Larry Ellison - $27 billion
• Warren Buffett - $25 billion
• Steve Ballmer - $13 billion
• Jim Walton - $12 billion

Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden's proposal will expand the range of taxable assets for billionaires. Currently, assets such as corporate shares are taxed when they are sold at a profit; this is called capital gains and is taxed at a lower rate.

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The Left Center for Fiscal and Policy Priorities found in its analysis that taxes on capital gains are “virtually voluntary” because the owner of the asset can simply hold on to it by allowing unrealized profits to accumulate or strategically sell it along with capital. The new proposal will change this and make unrealized profits taxable income, meaning billionaires will have to pay taxes to increase wealth from asset growth even if they don't sell their shares.

According to an analysis by the Institute for Left Policy Research (IPS) and Americans for Tax Equity, billionaires have increased their net worth by $ 2,1 trillion during the pandemic. That being said, most of this money is probably not taxable at this time.

Experts believe that if Democrats get their way, it will help reverse years of accelerating inequality between the richest Americans and everyone else.

"Most of their wealth or economic income comes in the form of property they own that increases in value because of what they do, primarily stocks," Indiana University law professor David Gamage previously told Insider. “And until they sell those shares (which they never do, in large part because there are ways around it), they won’t be included in the tax space.”

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Billionaires currently pay just 8,2% in income tax per year, according to a White House estimate that takes into account unrealized profits.

The new proposal has already faced opposition from West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, who criticized it. He called such a step a punitive measure that can harm successful people.

“I don’t like it,” Mancina said. “I don’t like that we’re targeting people who are basically contributing to society, creating a lot of jobs and a lot of money, and giving a lot to philanthropy.”

Other Democrats are concerned about creating a potentially complex and intractable new layer of tax code for billionaires. “It's riskier,” said Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia. “I think conceptually it makes sense.” We just need to make sure we get the details right."

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