White House looks to raise taxes on wealthy and corporations

The White House is looking to fulfill one of President Joe Biden’s campaign promises by raising taxes for the wealthy and on corporations, White House press secretary Jen Psaki affirmed on Monday.

Psaki said at a White House briefing that Biden believes that “those at the top are not doing their part” and “obviously that corporations could be paying higher taxes.”

Biden put forth several proposals during his presidential campaign that would raise taxes for the wealthy and on corporations by reversing some of the tax cuts that President Donald Trump signed into law in 2017.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Sunday suggested a tax hike could be on the horizon when she said she expects the White House to put forward proposals over time to get deficits under control.

“(Biden) hasn’t proposed a wealth tax but he has proposed that corporations and wealthy individuals should pay more in order to meet the needs of the economy, the spending we need to do, and over time I expect that we will be putting forth proposals to get deficits under control,” Yellen told ABC.

Then-candidate Biden proposed raising the top federal tax rate from 37% to 39.6%, its pre-Trump level. Under his plan, the corporate tax rate would rise from 21% to 28%. He would also establish a 15% minimum book tax and tax increases on international profits.

Biden has pledged not to raise taxes on those earning less than $400,000 a year, which is more than 90% of taxpayers. He had also proposed changing the way 401(k) retirement savings accounts are treated in the tax code in order to give low-income earners a bigger tax break up front.

Psaki said Monday that Biden shares liberal Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s view that “middle class families are paying more than their fair share and those at the top are not doing their part,” when asked if Biden was considering a wealth tax.

Warren, Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Pennsylvania Rep. Brendan Boyle unveiled the Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act earlier this month that would levy a 2% annual tax on the net worth of households and trusts between $50 million and $1 billion as well as a 1% annual surtax on assets above $1 billion, for a 3% tax overall on billionaires.

Warren pitched the idea of a wealth tax when she was running for president in 2020. Yellen said Sunday that a wealth tax is “something that we haven’t decided yet.”

“President Biden during the campaign proposed a higher tax rate on corporations, on individuals and on payments, capital gains and dividend payments that are received, and those are alternatives that address — that are similar in their impact to a wealth tax,” Yellen told ABC.