Biden to unveil tax hikes on wealthy Americans, corporations

Washington, March 10

US President Joe Biden will make a renewed push to overhaul the nation's tax code and dramatically raise the rates paid by corporations and wealthy Americans, the media reported.

The President is expected to lay out the tax hikes on Thursday as part of his budget blueprint for federal spending in fiscal 2024, which begins in October. The higher taxes would likely be borne by Wall Street and the top sliver of US households, Fox Business reported.

Biden previewed some proposals during his State of the Union address in February, when he called for steeper taxes on billionaires and floated quadrupling the current 1per cent levy on corporate stock buybacks.

"I'm a capitalist. But just pay your fair share," he said in the speech. "And I think a lot of you at home agree with me that our present tax system is simply unfair."

The so-called billionaire's tax would impose a 20 per cent rate on both income and unrealized capital gains, including stock and property of US households worth more than $100 million, or about 0.01 per cent of Americans, Fox Business reported.

Households that were already paying 20 per cent will not be required to pay an additional tax.

The rate may ultimately be even higher at 25 per cent, according to a report from Bloomberg News, citing a White House official familiar with the plan.

On top of that, the White House introduced a plan this week to raise payroll taxes from 3.8 per cent to 5 per cent on Americans earning more than $400,000 in a bid to keep Medicare solvent for at least another quarter-century, Fox Business reported.

Another aspect of the plan would apply to business income, in addition to investment, wages and self-employment income, representing a change from the initial surtax levied when applied under the Affordable Care Act.