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A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Contact:

Sam Quigley, sam@patrioticmillionaires.org, 317-752-9150

Patriotic Millionaires Mark Tax Day 2020 With Call to Tax the Rich

"We need to tax the rich, and we need to do it now."

WASHINGTON

Today, July 15th, is the deadline for individuals to submit their tax returns to the federal government, also known as Tax Day. To mark the occasion, Morris Pearl, former managing director at Blackrock, Inc., and Chair of the Patriotic Millionaires, issued the following statement:

"Tax Day 2020 was delayed three months because of the COVID crisis, but the majority of Americans are still waiting for a fair tax code. What they have instead, thanks in large part to the Trump tax bill of 2017, is one that gives special treatment to the rich, and hands the bill for running the country to the poor and middle class.

Millionaire and billionaire investors pay a lower top tax rate on their earnings than their assistants or the people who clean their offices.

Corporations have access to dozens of loopholes that allow some of the most profitable companies in the world to pay almost no taxes whatsoever.

When they do have to pay taxes, corporations get massive tax cuts for moving jobs overseas.

Millionaires and billionaires can pass on tens of millions of dollars to their heirs completely tax free.

Rich Americans are audited by the IRS at absurdly low rates, often lower than minimum wage workers, allowing them to avoid paying billions of dollars every year thanks to blatant tax evasion.

This is no accident. The Republican party has spent decades doing whatever it can to make its donors as rich as possible, and in the process made our economy more unequal than ever before. In the midst of a crisis in which tens of millions of people have lost their jobs and America's billionaires have ended up richer than ever, the American people are not going to put up with this anymore. We need to tax the rich, and we need to do it now."

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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