Bill Gates wants ultra-wealthy individuals to pay more tax — and now a growing chorus of billionaires agree.
In his annual “Ask Me Anything” forum on Reddit last year, the Microsoft cofounder said he was “surprised” that taxes for the rich haven’t been increased more.
Gates doubled down on his calls to tax the rich in a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week. He said the wealthiest nations should donate more money to developing countries to help redress inequality.
“Those who have the most — whether it’s countries, companies, or individuals — should be pushed to be more generous,” he said.
It seems others agree, as more than 250 ultra-wealthy people signed an open letter calling for global leaders to impose a wealth tax.
Each multi billionaire espousing a higher tax on the wealthy is free to part with any portion of their riches as they desire. Haven’t seen even one actually following through. No one is hindering them. And certainly not our Government.
That’s not the point. A one-time donation is not the same thing as a tax. Governments need to plan and budget, random donations from rich people don’t work well for that. It would potentially cause programs to be started that cannot be sustained, etc.
Like many necessary changes, this needs to be a part of the system, not something these people just do out of the goodness of thier hearts. They benefit massively from capitalism, and they should be forced to share some of that with the masses that’s are currently struggling to survive.
And that would open the door to paying an additional annual tax on your house, vehicles, stocks, etc. Make no mistake, this would be designed to go after the middle class, not the wealthy.
If you overpay taxes, the government is expected to return it. They return overpaid taxes all the time to hundreds of millions of Americans. It’s really not that simple.
Additionally, someone calling for increased taxes on their class is not automatically morally expected to just contribute without the law changing. If anything, the govt being flush with cash is a great way of getting the focus off doing the right thing and actually taxing the wealthy more.