The rich are different from other people – and this also applies to part of their income that they pay in taxes, according to a new study by the University of California, Burkeley, economists.
Those who make Forbes 400 ListResearchers said in a new new that Tesla’s CEO Elone Musk paid an average effective tax rate of 24% from 2018 to 2020, with fate of $ 244 billion. paper Published in the National Bureau of Economic Research.
On July 4, there is research in the form of President Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” signed in the law, it saves the biggest Benefits the highest -grossing Americans Through a mixture of new and extended tax brakes. These include increasing the per capita property discounts from $ 14 million to $ 15 million.
Changes create earlier tax cut-tax deduction and Jobs Act, Mr. Trump’s signature on the first-period law. Researchers found that the 2017 law reduced the effective tax rate for richest Americans by 30% to 24%.
New findings – Emmanuel Saaz and Gabriel Zukman from Berkeley’s economists and eminent inequality experts – calculate the tax rate by taxing all income taxes, as well as corporate taxes paid by companies owned by richest Americans. In other words, it provides a part of Amazon’s corporate taxes while calculating the burden to Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos.
“The economic income of the richest is essentially the profit of businesses that they have,” Saez told the CBS Manivatch in an email. “Jeff Bezos has about 10% of Amazon, and hence his actual economic income is 10% of Amazon’s profits.”
He said that corporate taxes are levied at the profits generated for Bezos, similarly how an employer prevents federal income and social security contribution from a worker’s salary.
Saez and Zucman are supporters of establishing one American money tax To help in broadening inequality between Haaves and Haver-Notes. That idea is adopted by some MPs, such as Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat of Massachusetts, and Berney Sanders, one independent of Vermont.
Some orthodox critics have argued that money taxes may be self-proclaimed, pay attention to one with the Hoover Institute 2023 blog post Levi can discourage entrepreneurship and investment.
Research shows that tax deduction and jobs Act, taxes for many individuals and businesses, have not had significant impact on the economy, found in Congress Research Service April Report. Republican supporters of “Big, Beautiful Bill” such as house speaker Mike Johnson Tell This will promote the economy and provide tax relief to workers and families.
How billionaires pay a small portion
American income taxes are designed to be progressive, meaning that high-earning workers give a large part of their income less than the IRS to reduce the ladder. Because
For example, the highest tax rate on earned income is 37%, which is evaluated at each dollar earned above $ 609,351 for individual taxpayers. Nevertheless, the same person will pay only 20% tax rate on long -term capital gains, such as profit from stock sales, and 21% corporate tax rate on income earned through a partnership or other business.
And if the rich do not sell their shares, they do not have to pay any tax on that money because they have not realized the capital gains, Saez said.
He said, “Personal income tax is designed for progressive thanks for increasing tax rates by brackets, and it does a great job in addition to the billionaire class,” he said. “As I said, the billionaire class can avoid feeling personal income and therefore can avoid personal income tax.”
To ensure this, the rich are becoming the largest part of the taxes of the country, IRS also shows data. Top 1% earnings – people who make more than about $ 663,000 per year – about 40% of all federal individual income tax, while top 50% 97% contribute to a tax foundation Analysis IRS data show. About 3% of those taxes in the bottom half of the income.
Some rich Americans pay a tax rate above 30% average, new paper was also found. According to Berkeley’s analysis, top labor -earnings – people who depend on high wages for their income rather than capital gains or corporate profits – according to the Burkeley analysis, is 45% effective tax rate.
Conclusions about the richest 400 Americans suggest that there is still a money tax to curb inequality in the US, Saaz said.
He said, “Wealth tax is the most direct and powerful way to target especially ultra-rich and increase tax progress at the very top,” he said. “Money tax on Ultra-Rich is also popular, but will be clearly fought by billionaires, and they have uneven effects.”
