President Joe Biden’s administration is weighing nearly doubling the capital gains tax on wealthy Americans to 43.4%, Bloomberg News reported Thursday.
The plan would raise the gains tax to 39.6% for Americans making more than $1 million a year, and that would add upon an existing 3.8% tax on that bracket that supports Obamacare, according to Bloomberg.
Biden has proposals to hike taxes on wealthy Americans in a number of his bills, including the American Jobs Plan, expected to be officially announced next week. (RELATED: Biden Administration Reportedly Crafting First Major Tax Hike Since 1993)
Former President Donald Trump reduced the corporate tax rate from 35% in with his 2018 tax cut bill, and Biden has similarly conceded that 35% is too high. Biden’s infrastructure plan calls for raising the corporate to 28% from 21%, despite some factions within his party arguing that 28% is also too high.
Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin is the leading critic of Biden’s tax hikes within the party.
“As the bill exists today, it needs to be changed,” Manchin said, adding that he could support raising the corporate tax rate to 25%, but said that 28% is too high.
“It’s more than just me,” Manchin said on April 5. “There’s six or seven other Democrats who feel very strongly about this. We have to be competitive, and we’re not going to throw caution to the wind.”
WASHINGTON, DC – APRIL 07: U.S. President Joe Biden speaks as Vice President Kamala Harris listens during an event at the South Court Auditorium at Eisenhower Executive Office Building April 7, 2021 in Washington DC. President Biden delivered remarks on the administration’s “American Jobs Plan.” (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Biden promised on the campaign trail to raise taxes on the wealthy, arguing wealthy Americans should never be paying lower tax rates than working-class Americans. (RELATED: Biden Pledges To Hike Taxes To Bush Administration Levels)
Republicans argue Biden’s tax hikes, particularly the corporate tax rate, will drive employers out of the U.S. and overseas. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has criticized Biden’s infrastructure plan as a “Trojan horse.”
“This is not going to be apparently an infrastructure package. It’s like a Trojan horse. So it’s called infrastructure but inside the Trojan horse is going to be more borrowed money and massive tax increases.”
