Prof. Brown: 'Billionaires Income Tax' Could Increase Fairness
November 24, 2021
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In an op-ed published by The Daily Record, Fred B. Brown, professor in The University of Baltimore School of Law and director of the Graduate Tax Program, explores the potential of the proposed Billionaires Income Tax to generate much-needed revenues and increase the tax system's fairness.
"Under the proposal, the publicly traded stock holdings of billionaires (along with other tradeable assets held by billionaires) would be marked to market each year, meaning that billionaires would be taxed on the gains on these assets, as well as be entitled to deductions for losses, regardless of selling these assets," Prof. Brown writes. He notes that Congress's Joint Committee on Taxation estimates the new tax would raise $557 billion over 10 years.
"The proposal also would dramatically improve the fairness of the income tax, given that a large portion of the economic income received by billionaires takes the form of untaxed appreciation in the value of traded assets," he writes.
"Besides creating needed revenue and improving the fairness of the income tax system, the Billionaires Income Tax can serve as an important test for a possibly broader application of marked-to-market taxation. Implementation issues concerning valuation and taxpayer liquidity, as well as attempts at avoiding the tax, can be studied and evaluated in a limited setting."
Read the article.
Learn more about Prof. Brown.