#millionaire tax

[bitchesgetriches]

[darkfrog24]

1) Preach it. Vote in state and local elections. Vote in off-season elections. Vote vote vote vote vote.

2) Hold them to it. Will Massachusetts spend the money on school meals, community college, and public transit or will it get funneled elsewhere? Do not let any politician get away with saying "We finally taxed the rich" without "and used the money to serve the public in these specific ways."

Source

[reasonsforhope]

Paywall-Free Version

"Massachusetts’ so-called “millionaires tax” appears primed to actually deliver billions.

State officials said Monday that the voter-approved surtax on high earners has generated more than $1.8 billion in revenue this fiscal year... meaning state officials could have hundreds of millions of surplus dollars to spend on transportation and education initiatives.

The estimated haul is already $800 million more than what Governor Maura Healey and state lawmakers planned to spend from its revenue in fiscal year 2024, the first full year of its implementation. Most of the additional money raised beyond the $1 billion already budgeted would flow to a reserve account, from which state policymakers can pluck money for one-time investments into projects or programs.

The Department of Revenue won’t certify the official amount raised until later this year. But the estimates immediately buoyed supporters’ claims that the surtax would deliver much-needed revenue for the state despite fears it could drive out some of the state’s wealthiest residents.

“Opponents of the Fair Share Amendment claimed that multi-millionaires would flee Massachusetts rather than pay the new tax, and they are being proven wrong every day,” said Andrew Farnitano, a spokesperson for Raise Up Massachusetts, the union-backed group which pushed the 2022 ballot initiative.

"With this money from the ultra-rich, we can do even more to improve our public schools and colleges, invest in roads, bridges, and public transit, and start building an economy that works for everyone,” Farnitano said.

Voters approved the measure in 2022 to levy an additional 4 percent tax on annual earnings over $1 million. At the time, the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, a left-leaning think tank, projected it could generate at least $2 billion a year.

State officials last year put their estimates slightly lower at up to $1.7 billion, and lawmakers embraced calls from economists to cap what it initially spends from the surtax, given it may be too volatile to rely upon in its first year.

So far, it’s vastly exceeded those expectations, generating nearly $1.4 billion alone last quarter [aka January to March, 2024 - just three months!], which coincided with a better-than-expected April for tax collections overall...

State Senator Michael Rodrigues, the state’s budget chief, said on the Senate floor Monday that excess revenue from the tax could ultimately come close to $1 billion for this fiscal year. Under language lawmakers passed last year, 85 percent of any “excess” revenue is transferred to an account reserved for one-time projects or spending, such as road maintenance, school building projects, or major public transportation work.

“We will not have any problems identifying those,” Rodrigues said. “As we all know, [transportation and education] are two areas of immense need.”"

-via Boston Globe, May 20, 2024

[donotdestroy]

"The financial media site Investopedia has done the math and calculated that achieving those milestones now costs a staggering $4.4 million—over $1 million more than most Americans will make in their lifetime, according to the researcher."

[papayafiles]

sincerely, the chairman of the tortured drivers department

[lilithism1848]

[kyotocop]

You can tell Monopoly is an old game because there's a luxury tax and rich people can go to jail.

In early versions there even were chance cards for paying poor tax or school tax. However, these were adapted to today's times and thus abolished.

[nando161mando]

$150,000,000,000

[n4b3]

For me i knew George was down bad bad when he did/does dream's taxes

[pierres-general-deliveries]

I'm like soooooo sorry, dude. Didn't mean what I said at all. Totally. I'm like... a changed person. Still ain't giving you my money, though. I don't give a fuck 'cause I'm a millionaire (Cue Party Like a Millionaire on full blast)

Wait, you’re… a millionaire….?

…No, don’t sweat it— it’s all perfectly fine with me. Say, this all seems like a big misunderstanding…

…Hey, why don’t the two of us go talk this out properly? Over a fancy meal, maybe? I could drive us up to Zuzu City, if that’s more your style…

[magical-oppas]

Remember when I said that the reason for all of the ferrari drama is because of the blind idolisation from charles fans and the hyper defensiveness from carlos fans? If you head over to twitter now you will see that I was 100% correct🙃

All I want is for both drivers to be respected by the fanbase and apparently thats too much to ask for

[bitchesgetriches]

What's this feeling? Hope? Optimism? No, that can't be right...

[queerism1969]

When you have the money to help solve problems like world hunger and climate change but don't, you are solely responsible for all the suffering.

[one-way-dream]

man. it is really funny when people say "ohhhh taylor swift can't fly commercial there will be too much chaos and attention :( it's just not possible" Yes She Fucking Can.

one of my parents has been working as a security screening officer at an international airport for the past 20+ years and you know what they do when celebrities (with a fanbase 2x or 3x the size of her own) show up for commercial flights? they go about business as usual.

yes there are a handful of people that ooh and ahh and yes some want autographs, but most of the time people are just trying to keep things moving and are too preoccupied with catching their own flight and simply aren't interested in getting arrested for harassing a celebrity. and, let's be honest, i'm sure taylor is old enough to take care of herself and know when someone is bothering her too much.

she has literally no excuse. she does not need a private jet that coughs up pollution that's worth a small country. get a grip.

[donotdestroy]

"The middle class, in all their naiveté, often believe that they can solve the problems of the lower class with the same tools they use to maintain their own status. But they are worlds apart, and what they fail to realize is that poverty isn’t a problem to be solved, but a condition to be survived."

— Anonymous

[eaglesnick]

THE BIG CON: VOTE REFORM, VOTE BIG BUSINESS

A vote for Nigel Farage’s Reform Party is essentially a vote for big business and the super-rich.

Reform promises to lift 7 million people from paying tax at the lower end of the pay scale to  “save every worker almost £1500 per year.” Although I am sure this saving for low earners would be very welcome, it is the rich who benefit most from Reform’s income tax proposals.

 At the moment people earning over £50,000 pay a 40% tax rate on earnings above this figure. The Reform Party promise to raise the threshold to £70,000, a saving of £3,588 a year for the 15% richest people in the country.

Reform and the far-right favour business over individual workers.  It is therefore no surprise that Corporations are to receive the biggest tax breaks. Corporation tax will be reduced from 25% to 20% for the first 5 years, and then down to 15% after that.

For year ending 2022/23 corporation tax brought in £79.9billion. Under Reform, corporations would be in receipt of tax breaks worth £47.94billion. In November 2022, State of Tax Justice reported that

…”the world was losing over $483 billion a year in tax to multinational corporations and wealthy individuals using tax havens to underpay tax. That’s equivalent to losing a nurse’s yearly salary to a tax haven every second.” 

The only reason Reform would want to legitimise corporate tax avoidance is because Reform is essentially a political party for the already wealthy. They might throw a few crumbs to the ordinary worker but the real rewards are to go to the rich and powerful.

Many large corporations are foreign owned so  tax breaks for big business are just as likely to go to overseas shareholders as they are to UK owners. Does the British taxpayer really want to be subsidising foreign share ownership by cutting tax revenues?

Richard Tice, leader of Reform until replaced by Nigel Farage a few days ago, is a multi-millionaire who made his money in property development.  Both he and Farage have their own TV shows on GB News, which is bankrolled by the hedge-fund billionaire Paul Marshal and the Dubai based investment company Legartum, founded by New Zealand billionaire Christopher Chandler who made his fortune in Russian gas.

Reform's links to the super-rich goes further. Multi-millionaire Jeremy Hosking has given £2.578,000 to Reform coffers. Is it coincidence he is funding a party that campaigns to scrap UK emission targets when he is ���the director of a company with tens of millions of pounds invested in oil and gas” ? (Open Democracy: 22/03/22). I think not.

Another major donor to Reform is the ex-Bullingdon Club member George Farmer. (Other members include David Cameron and George Osborne the architects of Tory Austerity and the liar Boris Johnson who brought us Party Gate). An “ardent supporter of Donald Trump”, Farmer was CEO of the far-right platform Parler, and is married to Candice Owens, a woman who “promotes far-right ideologies”, In 2023 he joined the board of GB News.

The biggest single donor to Reform according to Electoral Commission records is Chris Harborne, handing over £10 million to Brexit/Reform. Harborne owes his fortune to the sale of aviation fuel and technology investments. He gained notoriety when his name appeared multiple times in the Panama Papers. These documents revealed:

 “…off-shore holdings of world political leaders, links to global scandals, and details of  hidden financial dealings of fraudsters, drug traffickers, billionaires, celebrities, sports stars and more”. (International Consortium of Investigative Journalists: 03/03/2016)

These wealthy backers of Reform are not spending millions of pounds in order to benefit ordinary workingmen and women. They see these millions as an investment, an investment on which they expect a return for their money.