A version of the “The Buffett Rule” could soon make its way to Congress.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse announced plans to introduce legislation that would require Americans making more than $1 million to pay a 30 percent tax rate or more. The effort is a nod to the billionaire investor Warren Buffett who proposed that wealthy Americans, like himself, pay more taxes — a sentiment echoed by President Obama in last week’s State of the Union address and other speeches.
“You basically add a line to the tax form that says, if your income is over $1 million, multiply it by 0.3 and if that number is bigger than what you’d otherwise be paying, pay that,” the Democrat from Rhode Island told reporters during a conference call on Monday. “It’s sort of like a minimum tax. It doesn’t go into the tax rate or deductions and try to unwind them. You can adjust out of it your charitable contributions but they still count toward the million, they just don’t count toward the 30 percent.”
Between the Occupy Wall Street movement and Mitt Romney’s controversial 14 percent tax rate, the distribution of wealth and taxes have become a central theme this election cycle. Though, this proposed change to the tax code would be an uphill battle to actually get passed. (A for effort?)
Whitehouse is expected to introduce his bill on Wednesday. He declined to name the co-sponsors.
Sarah Muller