Millionaires are more eager than Janet Yellen to tax billionaires

A YouGov poll of Americans with more than $1 million in assets, excluding their homes, found that nearly 60% favor a tax increase on incomes over $100 million, up from the current average of 37%, according to the report. Financial Times.

The survey also revealed that 62% of American billionaires support global efforts to prevent billionaires from fleeing high-tax countries.

In addition, 59% agree with the proposal that the world’s billionaires pay a tax worth at least 2% of their total wealth every year. That’s a view Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen opposes as it stands now.

“We believe in progressive taxation. But the idea of ​​a general global system of charging billions with profits that are somehow redistributed—we don’t support the process of trying to achieve that. That is something we cannot sign,” he said The Wall Street Journal last month.

The vote comes as taxes become a key issue in the 2024 election. Biden said he wants to raise the top marginal rate to 39.6%, which would apply to single households with incomes above $400,000, and married couples with joint incomes of up to $450,000. Meanwhile, Donald Trump said he wants to extend the tax cuts he made during his presidency. Otherwise, they will expire at the end of next year. Biden would also expand those cuts, except for the wealthy.

Billionaire Warren Buffett has long advocated that those who can afford to pay higher taxes should do so, famously claiming that his secretary pays higher taxes than he does.

Meanwhile, other billionaires are lining up behind both candidates. Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman and Miriam Adelson support Trump, while Pershing Square CEO Bill Ackman is reportedly leaning towards supporting Trump. Tim Mellon, heir to the Mellon fortune, recently reported a $50 million donation to a pro-Trump super PAC.

And this past week, billionaire and philanthropist Melinda French Gates endorsed a presidential candidate for the first time, voicing her support for Biden in a CNN op-ed. And Michael Bloomberg announced a $20 million donation to support Biden.

A separate FT-Michigan Ross poll of American voters showed that 45% of high-income people say Biden is better for the economy, outpacing the 40% who think Trump would be better, according to the FT.