Millionaire's tax

Terminology explanations

Affordable housing

Alt-right

Double dipping

Evidence-based medicine

Gun control

Homesharing

Illegal alien

Millionaire's tax

Political correctness

Ridesharing

Safe space

Sharing economy

Trigger warning

Unconstitutional racial gerrymandering

War on Terror

Millionaire's tax refers to a tax policy proposal that would tax the wealthiest citizens of the United States.

Usage

Below are examples of the term or the idea it refers to appearing in statements from politicians or the media.

• 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D) spoke of what she called an Ultra-Millionaire Tax in a press release, saying: "It's time to fundamentally transform our tax code so that we tax the wealth of the ultra-rich, not just their income ... By asking our top 75,000 households to pay their fair share, my proposal will help address runaway wealth concentration and at the same time accelerate badly needed investments in rebuilding our middle class."

• The Associated Press reported on a millionaire's tax proposal in Massachusetts: "The Legislature advanced a constitutional amendment Wednesday calling for an additional tax on the state’s highest earners, while skirting any discussion of replacing Massachusetts’ current flat tax system with a graduated income tax. Backers of the so-called millionaire tax say the 4% surtax on the portion of an individual’s annual income that exceeds $1 million would generate up to $2 billion in revenue earmarked for investments in education and transportation."

• The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board wrote an op-ed on a millionaire's tax in New Jersey: "For a second time, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has signed a state budget without the “millionaire’s tax” he has been pitching since his 2017 election. Weary New Jerseyites can’t yet breathe a sigh of relief. But their Legislature—unlike in Illinois or Connecticut—seems to realize that it’s possible to run out of other people’s money."

Arguments

Opponents

Opponents of a millionaire's tax argue that it is unfair to impose a significantly higher tax on the top earners in the country. They say that the amount in taxes paid by the wealthiest is already beyond what is fair, while pointing to estimates from sources like the Tax Policy Center that 44% of Americans don't pay any federal income tax.

They also argue taxing the nation's wealthies would decrease jobs. T.J. Rodgers wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed: "A couple of years ago, I decided to invest in my hometown of Oshkosh, Wis., by building a $1.2 million lakefront restaurant. That restaurant now permanently employs 65 people at an investment of $18,000 per job ... If progressive taxation in the name of 'fairness' had taken my 'extra' $1.2 million and spent it on a government stimulus program, would 65 jobs have been created?"

Proponents

Those who support a millionaire's tax argue it helps relieve income inequality. Writing for The Atlantic, Derek Thompson argued, "There are ways to restore the progressivity of the tax code without adding a millionaire bracket, such as raising taxes on investment income or limiting high-earners’ deductions on state and local taxes and mortgage interest. But the benefit of a millionaire bracket is that it would be the most direct way to capture some of the extraordinary wealth of the rich to use it for the public benefit."

"The point of high top marginal income tax rates is to constrain the immoderate, and especially unmerited, accumulation of riches," wrote University of California Berkeley economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman in a New York Times op-ed.