Monday, March 1, 2021

Why Warren's Wealth Tax Won't Work


Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren has proposed an "ultramillionaire tax" on people with assets in excess of $1 billion as well as a 2% levy on those with assets between $50 million and $1 billion. Warren also proposed a wealth tax during her 2020 presidential bid.

It looks good on paper. But what looks good on paper doesn't always look good in practice. 

The fact is that wealth taxes don't work as demonstrated by the fact they have been repealed throughout the EU. Wealth taxes are expensive to implement and generate little in the way of revenue. Then there is the constitutionality of such a policy. But let's say the Supreme Court looks the other way on a wealth tax as it did with Obamacare. A good tax lawyer will probably put holes into such a law the size of moon craters.

All of this assumes that Congress would pass such a law. I can't see Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema supporting a wealth tax anymore than I can see them supporting a $15 an hour minimum wage.

Warren's wealth tax amounts to an easy answer. Unfortunately, easy answers are rarely the right answers.

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