September, 12 2019, 12:00am EDT
Patriotic Millionaire Stephen Prince: Senator Wyden's Tax Proposal "A Key Step Towards Making the Wealthy Pay Their Fair Share"
"The current capital gains tax system is deeply inadequate, inherently regressive, and in dire need of transformative change."
WASHINGTON
Today, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) released a white paper on anti-deferral accounting, a new proposal to equalize tax rates on earned income and unearned income from wealth, and require wealthy investors to pay capital gains taxes on their increased wealth each year, rather than being able to defer payment until the sale of their assets. In response, Stephen Prince, founder and president of Card Marketing Services Inc. and Vice Chair of the Patriotic Millionaires, issued the following statement:
"Our tax code has given special treatment to wealthy investors for decades, consistently at the expense of all non-wealthy working Americans. The current capital gains tax system is deeply inadequate, inherently regressive, and in dire need of transformative change. But just raising the rate isn't enough. There are too many ways for the wealthy to game the system, since they are the ones who paid for the lobbyists that have helped write them, and until those loopholes are addressed, tax fairness is going to remain a distant dream.
That's why Senator Wyden's white paper on anti-deferral accounting is so important - this is a key step towards making the wealthy pay their fair share just like every other working taxpayer. The rich shouldn't receive special tax treatment just because we are rich. Period!"
The Patriotic Millionaires is a group of high-net worth Americans who share a profound concern about the destabilizing level of inequality in America. Our work centers on the two things that matter most in a capitalist democracy: power and money. Our goal is to ensure that the country's political economy is structured to meet the needs of regular Americans, rather than just millionaires. We focus on three "first" principles: a highly progressive tax system, a livable minimum wage, and equal political representation for all citizens.
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