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Just posted my new paper with @davidckamin, Taxing the Rich: Issues and Options. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…. Abstract below and quick summary follows. 1/ 
@davidckamin US has one of highest levels of income and wealth inequality among high-income countries. Has one of lowest levels of intergenerational economic mobility. Means economic disparities btwn individuals reflect luck of one’s birth, not hard work, to especially large extent in US. 2/
@davidckamin The way the US taxes the wealthy is broken. Part of reason why is wealthy earn income and accrue wealth in very different ways from most Americans. Get much larger share of income from CGs, dividends, and income flowing through business entities they own. 3/
@davidckamin The wealthy pay tax at much lower rates than would guess based on statutory rates. Is because, unlike wage earners, can classify and report their income in lower-taxed categories. Here is the patchwork of rates available to wealthy through just a few tax planning strategies. 4/
@davidckamin Policymakers have proposed many measures to raise more revenue from the very wealthy. Together, can raise on the order of $4-5 trillion over 10 years. 5/
@davidckamin But if policymakers dislike some of these proposals or want to raise more revenue from the wealthy to address mounting fiscal challenges and finance needed investments in low- and middle-income families, need to consider more structural reforms. 6/
@davidckamin We discuss advantages and challenges associated with 4 potential structural reforms: (1) dramatically increasing top tax rates on labor/ordinary income, (2) taxing accrued gains as arise and at ordinary rates, (3) wealth tax, and (4) financial transactions tax. 7/
@davidckamin We (very roughly) estimate an accrual tax limited to top 1% would raise $2.1T/10 if 15% avoidance rate, no other behavioral responses. Assumes MTM tax for publicly-traded assets taxed, retrospective accrual tax for other assets, CGs taxed at ordinary rates pre-TCJA. 8/
@davidckamin We (very roughly) estimate an accrual tax limited to top 0.1% would raise $750B/10 if 15% avoidance rate, no other behavioral responses, CGs taxed at ordinary rates pre-TCJA. 9/
@davidckamin We (very roughly) estimate a 2% wealth tax limited to top 1% (net worth over ~$10 million) would raise $5.1T/10 if 15% avoidance rate and no other behavioral responses. 10/
@davidckamin We (very roughly) estimate a 2% wealth tax limited to top 0.1% (net worth over ~$43 million) would raise $2.6T/10 if 15% avoidance rate and no other behavioral responses. 11/11
