Culture

See how much Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos would pay under the Warren wealth tax

Spoiler alert: it's a lot of money.

Elizabeth Warren
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A new bill called the Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act proposed by senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders will look to the hyper-wealthy in an attempt to bolster tax revenue.

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The aptly named bill, introduced this week, does two major things...

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2%

Introduce an increase of 2 percent on individuals with wealth exceeding $50 million.

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3%

And individuals with more than $1 billion dollars would pay 3 percent more in taxes.

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While (relatively) small on the surface, those increased tax rates translate to a pretty hefty hunk of change when looking at the scope of the bill's targeted wealth.

In fact, according to an analysis from the lobby group Americans for Tax Fairness, the bill would have raised...

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$114B

If the bill was passed last year, it'd be nearing $115 billion in added tax revenue.

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Or...

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$3T

Over the next 10 years.

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The analysis didn't stop there. Americans for Tax Fairness also decided to single out a few of the world's richest individuals to see exactly how much they would've payed out of their own pockets last year, including...

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$4.6B

Elon Musk

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$5.7B

Jeff Bezos

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$3.6B

Bill Gates

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$3B

Mark Zuckerberg

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Here's a the Americans for Tax Fairness' full list of estimated payouts from billionaires.

$4.2T

How much wealth the United States' 650 billionaires own in all.

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Warren has proposed that that the newly created revenue be invested into education and infrastructure as well as subsidized child care programs, though that too would be up for debate. The bill also proposes a 40 percent tax penalty for anyone who might try to avoid the tax by renouncing their citizenship.

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As was the case with proposed tax increases on the wealthy in the past, the bill will likely face resistance by Senate Republicans, and potentially other center-leaning Democrats, so before you go celebrating investments in any one social program, just remember this is still just a proposal...

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Albeit, one that the remaining 327.9 million Americans might enjoy.

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