Millionaires are more eager than Janet Yellen to tax billionaires

Most wealthy Americans are signaling support for President Joe Biden’s plan to raise taxes on the rich, and they are even more eager than his administration to tax the world’s ultra-rich, a new poll said.

A YouGov poll of Americans with assets of more than $1 million, excluding their homes, found that almost 60% are in favor of hiking marginal taxes on income above $100 million beyond the current rate of 37%, according to the Financial Times.

The poll also showed that 62% of American millionaires support global efforts to prevent billionaires from fleeing countries with higher taxes.

What’s more, 59% are in favor of a proposal to require the world’s billionaires to pay taxes worth at least 2% of their overall wealth every year. That’s an idea that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen opposes in its current form.

“We believe in progressive taxation. But the notion of some common global arrangement for taxing billionaires with proceeds redistributed in some way—we’re not supportive of a process to try to achieve that. That’s something we can’t sign on to,” she told the Wall Street Journal last month.

The poll comes as taxes become a key flash point in the 2024 election. Biden has said he wants to lift the top marginal rate to 39.6%, which would apply to single households with an income above $400,000, and married couples with a combined income topping $450,000. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has said he wants to extend the tax cuts he enacted while president. Otherwise, they would expire at the end of next year. Biden would also extend those cuts, except for the wealthy.

Billionaire Warren Buffett has long advocated that those who can pay more taxes should do so, famously saying his secretary paid a higher tax rate than he did.

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

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

A separate FT-Michigan Ross poll of U.S. voters showed that 45% of the top earners say Biden is better on the economy, topping 40% who think Trump would be better, according to the FT.

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