Taxes

The World’s Richest Just Got Extraordinarily More Wealthy

July 13, 2024 Max B. Sawicky, In These Times. Educate! Class Struggle, Finance and the Economy, Taxes, wealth inequality

In every measurement of economic inequality, personal wealth is found to be more unequal than income. Naturally, this state of affairs invites attention and criticism, along with demands for a reduction of that inequality by various means, including to reduce the stubborn racial wealth gap. The latest World Wealth Report for 2024, published last month by The Capgemini Research Institute, brings this level of inequality into stark relief. We learn from the report that very high net-worth individuals (“HNWI,” defined as those with at least $1 million of investable assets) have been doing quite well, which is probably not a surprise.

A Practical Prescription For Taxing Our World’s Richest

June 29, 2024 Sam Pizzigati, Inequality.org. Create! Class Struggle, Finance and the Economy, Tax the rich, Taxes, wealth inequality

Ever wonder why the divide between the world’s richest and everybody else keeps getting wider? Gabriel Zucman, one of the world’s finest young economists, has just produced a report that riffs on one key reason: Our super rich pay next to nothing in taxes. Just how close to nothing? This close: Over the past four decades, the world’s “ultra-high-net-worth individuals” have seen their fortunes increase, after taking inflation into account, an average 7.5 percent per year. How much annually have these rich paid in taxes? They’ve been paying, Zucman calculates, an effective tax rate “equivalent to 0.3% of their wealth.”

IMF-Driven Policies Spark Deadly Protests In Kenya

June 27, 2024 Robert Inlakesh, MintPress News. Resist! Debt, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kenya, Mass Action, State Violence, Taxes

At least 23 Kenyan protesters were killed on Tuesday after hundreds stormed the nation’s parliament in response to a proposed tax-hike bill, which threatens to deepen the country’s cost of living crisis. The IMF’s pressure on Nairobi to balance its budget is central to the issue. Videos of bodies strewn across the concrete and protesters storming the parliament went viral on social media. This follows protests the previous week that brought the nation to a standstill. President William Ruto, elected to address the cost of living crisis, is now seen attempting to combat dissent with force, having failed to improve conditions.

Kenya Protests: Gen Z Shows The Power Of Digital Activism

June 25, 2024 Job Mwaura, The Conversation. Organize! Digital Activism, Kenya, Mass Action, Media, Social Media, Taxes, Youth Activism

This is a powerful moment for digital activism. The protests have seen significant participation from young Kenyans who are using digital media to organise and voice their opposition. A great number of those driving the protests are Generation Z (often referred to as Gen Z) – individuals born roughly between the late 1990s and early 2010s and characterised by digital prowess and social consciousness. They have created this organic, grassroots movement which has used platforms, like social media, to mobilise and coordinate efforts quickly. Through my work I’ve documented how essential digital media has been in political participation in Kenya in the past decade.

For The Rich, One Nation Isn’t Rolling Out The Red Carpet

June 10, 2024 Sam Pizzigati, Inequality.org. Create! Norway, Taxes, wealth inequality, Wealth Tax

So you think the rich have life easy, do you? Just try telling that to the deep pockets who’ve spent tens of millions buying condos at 432 Park Avenue, the 11-year-old Manhattan luxury tower that once rated as our hemisphere’s tallest residence. Condo owners in the tower have had to put up with “faulty elevators, leaky plumbing, and noise issues.” They’re now suing the building’s operator. Or consider the plight of those fabulously wealthy souls who’ve had to pay millions to move their mansions off the sandy coast of Nantucket, the one-time hippie refuge that’s become a summer “holiday hot spot for billionaires.” The problem?

Tackling California’s Budget Crisis: Taxes, Cuts, Or Form A Public Bank?

May 7, 2024 Ellen Brown, Scheer Post. Strategize! California, Finance and the Economy, Public Banks, Taxes

In 2022, the state of California celebrated a record budget surplus of $97.5 billion. Two years later, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, this surplus has plummeted to a record budget deficit of $73 billion. Balancing the budget will be challenging. Unlike the federal government, the state cannot just drive up debt and roll it over year after year. The California Balanced Budget Act, passed in 2004, requires the state legislature to pass a balanced budget every year. The usual solutions are to cut programs or raise taxes, but both approaches are facing an uphill battle. Raising taxes would require a two-thirds vote of the legislature, which would be very challenging, and worthy public programs are in danger of getting axed, including homelessness prevention and funding for low-income housing.

Taxing Fossil Fuel Companies Could Be ‘Powerful Tool’ To Cut Emissions

May 1, 2024 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. Strategize! climate crisis, Climate Justice, Fossil Fuels, Oil and Gas Industry, Report, Taxes

According to the new Climate Damages Tax report, introducing a fossil fuel tax on companies in the richest countries in the world could generate hundreds of billions to aid the most vulnerable nations in coping with the climate crisis. The impacts of climate change disproportionately affect poorer nations that have contributed to it the least. “Climate change is a war. A category five hurricane releases energy equivalent to 10,000 times the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.

Tax Resistance Movement Grows In Response To US Support For Genocide

April 13, 2024 Nylah Iqbal Muhammad, Mondoweiss. Resist! Anti-war Movement, Gaza, Genocide, Israel, Palestine, Tax Resistance, Taxes

Since October 7, 2023, the slaughter of Gaza has played out on phone screens across the world and those following have seen indescribable images of violence. For many, beneath the experience of bearing witness to genocide is the awareness that, as Americans, it is our tax dollars funding the butchering of a nation. With this knowledge, more Americans are coming to the conclusion that they can no longer pay for the weapons and other support going directly to Israel, a settler colony that has murdered over 40,000 Palestinian people in Gaza over the past six months.

Last Year, You Spent Over A Month’s Rent On Pentagon Contractors

April 11, 2024 Lindsay Koshgarian, Scheer Post. Educate! Finance and the Economy, Military Industrial Complex, Pentagon, Taxes

Ever wonder where your taxes go? Each year, the Institute for Policy Studies releases a tax receipt so you can find out. One item always stands out: the Pentagon — and the contractors who profit off it. In 2023, the average taxpayer spent $2,974 on the Pentagon. Of that, just $705 went to salaries for the troops, who often have to rely on programs like food stamps. A much larger sum — $1,748 — went to corporate Pentagon contractors. That’s more than the average American’s monthly rent, $1,372. From Lockheed Martin to SpaceX, these corporations don’t need your support. And they aren’t operating with your well-being in mind.

Voters Reject Stadium Sales Tax To Help Fund New Royals Ballpark

April 3, 2024 Celisa Calacal, Flatland - Kansas City. Resist! Kansas City, Missouri, Stadium, Taxes, Voting

Jackson County voters handed the Kansas City Royals and Chiefs a major setback on Tuesday, rejecting a stadium sales tax extension that would fund a new downtown baseball stadium and renovations at Arrowhead Stadium. Question 1 would have repealed Jackson County’s existing 3/8th-cent sales tax and replaced it with a tax at the same level until 2064. The results mean that the existing sales tax will end in 2031, when the Royals and Chiefs’ leases expire, and can only be used on the existing Truman Sports Complex properties.

As Climate Crisis Expands, Canada Hands Billions To Fossil Fuel Industry

March 28, 2024 Taylor Noakes, DeSmog. Educate! Canada, climate crisis, Fossil Fuels, Subsidies, Taxes

A new report by the nonprofit Environmental Defence indicates that, despite record profits for the fossil fuel industry and Canadian claims to eliminate subsidies, the government of Justin Trudeau continues to spend massive quantities of public money supporting the primary cause of climate change. “As people across Canada faced a fossil fuel affordability crisis, and climate disasters continued to ravage the country and the world, the government of Canada continued providing financial support to an industry that we need to be winding down in order to avoid catastrophic levels of warming.”

Colorado Looks To Rental-Car Fee To Fund Passenger Rail Projects

March 19, 2024 Trains.com. Create! Colorado, Railroads, State Legislatures, Taxes

Denver, Colorado - Colorado legislators plan to introduce a bill that will increase the state fee on rental cars by $2 to $3 per day to help pay for proposed passenger rail service along the Front Range and to Craig, Colo., the Colorado Sun reports. The fee would generate as much as $50 million annually, which the state would use for matching funds for federal grant programs — specifically targeting the $60 billion for rail projects in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. “I really want to make sure Colorado gets some of that money,” state Senate President Steve Fenberg (D-Boulder) told the Sun.

Corporations That Pay Their Executives More Than Uncle Sam

March 16, 2024 Sarah Anderson, William Rice and Zachary Tashman, Inequality.org. Educate! Capitalism, Corporatism, Finance and the Economy, Tax Cuts, Tax Evasion, Taxes

Corporate tax dodging and CEO pay have both gotten so far out of control that a significant number of major U.S. companies are paying their top executives more than they’re paying Uncle Sam. Tesla is perhaps the most dramatic example. Over the period 2018-2022, the electric car maker raked in $4.4 billion in profits but paid no federal income taxes. Meanwhile, Tesla CEO Elon Musk became one of the world’s richest men. When it comes to fleecing taxpayers while overpaying executives, Tesla is hardly alone. A new report we co-authored for the Institute for Policy Studies and Americans for Tax Fairness analyzes executive pay data for some of the country’s most notorious corporate tax dodgers.

How $9 Billion From Taxpayers Fueled Plastics Production

March 15, 2024 Sara Sneath, DeSmog. Educate! Environment, Louisiana, Plastics, pollution, Taxes, Texas

Through billions in tax breaks and subsidies, taxpayers in Louisiana, Texas, and other states have supported the construction or expansion of dozens of facilities manufacturing plastics in the United States since 2012. However, many of these plants have also repeatedly exceeded legal limits on the air pollution they release into surrounding communities, disproportionately affecting people of color. That’s according to an Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) report published on Thursday. For instance, in 2015, then-Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal welcomed Indorama Ventures — one of the world’s biggest producers of single-use plastic — to the state.

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