Issue Position: Fairness in Taxation

Issue Position

Income is income. That should be a self-evident statement. Yet, for some reason, the Barons of Wall Street have managed to convince some that "capital gains" and "dividends" are somehow worthy of special treatment. Instead of paying the normal tax rate on this income like everyone else does, they only have to pay 20%. In addition to getting this low tax rate, this income is also excluded from Social Security and Medicare taxes. Where the average American is paying a marginal tax rate of 25% plus 6.2% Social Security and 1.45% Medicare for a total of over 32% marginal tax rate, those who are rich enough to arrange their income to be called "capital gains" and "dividends" pay the far lower 20% rate. We must all realize when one group gets such a major tax break, the rest of us will end up paying more in the long run. It is time to end the special treatment of capital gains and dividends.

It is also time to end the free pass that multinational corporations have managed to get. They are rigging their internal profit transfers to occur outside of the United States in ways that allow them to make most of their profits in artificial tax havens while making most of their sales in America. Now they want a "tax holiday' to be able to distribute those untaxed profits and escape from ever paying taxes on them. It's time to recognize the games being played by big corporations are not available to American wage earners and American small business owners. These loopholes need to be closed as they harm the taxpayer and create distrust of the fairness of a tax system where the wealthy 1% seem to always find ways to avoid paying their fair share.

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