It’s not over until it’s over. #ny11

Make no mistake about it, the big ugly is the largest upward redistribution of income ever. Tax cuts for the wealthy paid for by taking health care away from 17 million Americans.

And its cost has increased significantly.

It’s spawned an industry of consultants pitching strategies to circumvent guardrails meant to prevent abuse.

The exclusion has made a small number of tax filers very wealthy while contributing the significant share of capital gains that go forever untaxed.

The benefits of the QSBS exclusion overwhelming skew towards the wealthy…venture capital investors are major beneficiaries.

Your morning message

And DOGE & company “accidentally” fired the USDA staff working on the avian flu response.

The estate tax is overwhelmingly paid by the estates bequeathed by high-income earners. The Tax Policy Center estimates that in 2023, the top 10 percent of income-earners paid 90 percent of the tax and the top 0.1 percent—140 taxable estates—paid 29 percent of all estate taxes paid.

While when inequality has increased substantially over the past 50 years, the share of estates covered by the tax has plummeted due to multiple rounds of tax cuts.

Healthcare for 10.3 million or tax cuts for the 1%?

A while ago I did a case study on efforts to build tax capacity in Liberia for a large US foundation. Helping countries raise the revenues needed to support services & economic growth pays for itself many times over. It takes pressure off migration & enables people to see a future at home.

As illustrated here.

We know that the 2017 tax changes failed to deliver the promised investment boost.

And we know that the benefits of the corporate rate cuts went exclusively to corporate owners and high-paid workers.

We know that they provided the largest tax cuts to the very wealthy.