Our Money Vs. Their Sweat: Meet the Equal Tax Act

Today, standing alongside members of the Patriotic Millionaires, Congresswoman Delia C. Ramirez (IL-03) introduced the Equal Tax Act, a landmark piece of legislation that makes the tax code more equitable by taxing investment income at the same rate as ordinary labor income and by closing other common loopholes used by the wealthy to avoid paying their fair share. This legislation is one of four key components of Patriotic Millionaires’ legislative platform, The MONEY Agenda: America 250, that puts working people at the center of economic policy.

The Equal Tax Act would ensure that millionaires and billionaires, who earn most of their money passively through investments, pay the same tax rates as newspaper reporters, dental hygienists, and auto mechanics. This legislation would take an important step in reducing historic, extreme, and democracy-destabilizing levels of economic inequality in America. The legislation is also co-sponsored by Representatives Chuy García (IL-04), Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Yassamin Ansari (AZ-03), Rashida Tlaib (MI-12), Shri Thanedar (MI-13), Ilhan Omar (MN-05), Chris Deluzio (PA-17), and Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12).

“Over and over again, we have seen how Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg, Trump, and other billionaires have extorted tax benefits from the American people. For far too long, they have exploited an unfair tax system that makes the rich richer at the expense of working families. It is time we ensure that the ultra-wealthy pay their fair share. My Equal Tax Act is a first step in building a fairer tax system that ensures working families have everything they need to thrive,” said Congresswoman Delia C. Ramirez (IL-03).

Morris Pearl, the Chair of Patriotic Millionaires and a former Managing Director at BlackRock, said:

“For as long as I can remember, politicians and pundits have said that investors like me need lower tax rates as incentives to invest and grow the economy. They are and have been completely and utterly wrong. Even if the top income tax rate rises to 99% some day, I will always receive a greater return by investing than I would by doing the alternative: stuffing my money under my mattress. Mattresses do not provide very high returns.

Money is money is money is money, whether you earn it by pressing a button on your phone to sell stock while drinking a daiquiri on the beach or whether you earn it working an overnight shift in the emergency room. The money that investors like me make from our money should not be taxed any less than the money millions of Americans make through their sweat. I’m thrilled to see Rep. Ramirez introduce this bill to correct this blatant injustice in our tax code and to take an important step forward in the fight for tax fairness in America.”

Among other things, the Equal Tax Act would:

• Limit the lower preferential tax rate for long-term capital gains and dividends to incomes under $1 million
• End the stepped-up basis loophole and disrupt the “buy, borrow, die” strategy used by the wealthy to avoid taxation by treating capital gains as realized at the time of gift or death, with exclusion allowances of up to $1 million in gains
• Enact a lifetime limit of $1 million on the use of like-kind exchanges on real estate gains
• Limit the pass-through deduction to incomes under $1 million

This bill includes very generous protections for family farms and small businesses. While this will not prevent lawmakers from pretending otherwise in order to continue to do the bidding of their billionaire benefactors while hiding behind the hard work of American farmers and entrepreneurs, it does happen to be true.

Patriotic Millionaires is a collection of wealthy Americans united in their concern over historic and destabilizing levels of economic inequality. Other allied organizations in support of the Equal Tax Act include Indivisible; Responsible Wealth; Voices for Progress; Americans for Tax Fairness; Institute for Policy Studies, Global Economy Project; National Women’s Law Center Action Fund; United for a Fair Economy; Coalition on Human Needs; Oxfam America; Public Advocacy for Kids (PAK); NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice; Equal Rights Advocates; Americans for Financial Reform; People’s Action; Housing Action Illinois; Accountable.US; American Friends Service Committee; MomsRising; and National Association of Social Workers.

For more information about the Equal Tax Act, access a one-pager about the bill HERE. To access the full text of the legislation, see HERE.

For interview requests with Congresswoman Delia C. Ramirez, please contact Jowen Ortiz Cintrón at Jowen.OrtizCintron@mail.house.gov. For interview requests with Morris Pearl or other members of the Patriotic Millionaires, please contact Emily McCloskey at emily@patrioticmillionaires.org.