As part of their new 2024 party platform, Democrats have promised to close a notorious tax loophole that has long allowed Wall Street billionaires to pay a far lower tax rate than most Americans. Likewise, Vice President Kamala Harris has reportedly signaled she supports ending this tax break, which could net billions in government revenue.
But Democrats have been promising and failing to close the so-called “carried interest” loophole for more than a decade, even though any president, including President Joe Biden, could do so immediately via executive action.
Meanwhile, an ever-increasing flood of financial-sector money is flowing into party coffers. Will it be enough to preserve Wall Street’s favorite tax loophole through another potential Democratic administration?
Political contributions “are absolutely a factor in the reason that lawmakers haven’t closed this loophole,” said Joe Hughes, senior policy analyst at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a liberal think tank. “People should be taxed the same whether they are working a sixty-hour shift or sitting on the couch monitoring their investments on their laptop.”
The Democratic platform, unveiled ahead of the party’s National Convention this week, vows to eliminate this tax break, which allows investors to shield their earnings from higher taxes.
“Democrats will close the ‘carried interest’ loophole, which wealthy fund managers have long used to halve tax rates on their own personal pay, so they pay a lower rate than some teachers or firefighters do,” notes the platform.
And late last week, the nonprofit think tank the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget told Semafor that the Harris campaign was backing Biden’s fiscal year 2025…
La suite est à lire sur: jacobin.com
Auteur: Helen Santoro
