Thread by @StevenTDennis

***Senate Democrats are considering an expanded menu of taxes on corporations and the wealthy to help pay for Biden's $3.5 trillion economic agenda***

W/@KaustuvBasu1
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Expanded menu of potential tax targets considered by Dems include:
*Stock buybacks
*Supersized CEO pay
*Billionaire unrealized cap gains
*Supersized IRAs
*Carried interest for fund managers
*Trusts used to elude estate/gift taxes
*Carbon (w/rebates)
*Virgin plastic

It's not clear how many of these if any will pass muster with Joe Manchin & Co, who now wants to hit the pause button on Biden's agenda, but the menu gives Democrats more options as they negotiate among themselves.

One paper earlier this year estimated $70-80 billion a year could be raised by subjecting stock buybacks to taxes.

That's an enormous potential pot of money.

Stock buybacks are presently a tax-free way to return money to shareholders, unlike dividends, which are subject to tax

Mark-to-market rules for 600 or so richest Americans could also raise hundreds of billions on their unrealized capital gains. The richest people in USA, like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk or Warren Buffett, have almost all of their wealth in the form of an unrealized, untaxed cap gain.

One of Biden's proposals that has the most pushback among some Ds as well as Rs like McConnell — taxing unrealized gains at death in excess of $1M — appears to be getting a makeover.

New proposal would have $5M exemption per person plus *$25M farm exemption on top of that.*

How many farmers are sitting on top of a $35M capital gain?

Anyway, the existing Biden proposal would defer tax liability for farms and small biz *as long as they stay in the family.*

IE, you cash out, you pay the tax.

Depending on how you structure these ideas and what tax rates Ds choose, you could pay for the whole $3.5T package over 10 years. But going after the deepest pockets on earth means those deep pockets can marshal a lot of lobbying firepower to try & crash the plane.

And Dems have no margin:

No Manchin, no bill.
No Sinema, no bill.
A handful of House defections, no bill.

Fun fact: The first person I remember proposing to tax stock buybacks like dividends = Marco Rubio.

Who says I don't have fun facts?

Interesting thread

https://twitter.com/TaxPolicyCenter/status/1433835925377847296?s=20

Some more react

https://twitter.com/SethHanlon/status/1433842754807865389?s=20