Will Kamala Harris waive taxes on the super rich?
Among the donors to Kamala Harris' election campaign there are important managers of the finance and technology industry who are trying to convince her to give up taxes on large fortunes
If Kamala Harris promised to tighten taxes on the super-rich, there are those who are now trying to dissuade her and direct her towards other solutions. It is the donors to her election campaign, including some important Wall Street and Silicon Valley managers, who according to the New York Times approached the candidate by whispering alternative ideas to her.
Kamala's plan
Harris' electoral campaign confirmed last week its intention to keep unchanged the tax increases already foreseen by current President Biden in the latest budget proposal.
Among the most delicate points of the program is the taxation of 25% of investment income for those who earn more than 100 million dollars a year.
The so-called "billionaire minimum income tax" would weigh heavily on the wallets of taxpayers whose income is generated mainly from the ownership of shares or other assets.
The approaches
The New York Times spoke to seven people who reportedly reported cautious approaches by Harris campaign donors to the candidate herself or her staff to express their dissent over tax plans that would penalize them greatly.
One of these people spoke about it directly with Harris, while the others spoke to her main advisors or entrepreneurs close to her.
One donor, the former owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team Mark Cuban, tells the newspaper that he found his interlocutors on Harris' team very open to a discussion. According to the hopeful Cuban, "nothing has been decided yet".
Confirmations from the campaign
That there are movements underway is confirmed by one of Harris' campaign advisors, Charles Kretschmer Lutvak, who explains to the NYT how the candidate is ready to evaluate alternative ways to tax the ultra-rich.
The vice president's goal, Kretschmer Lutvak explains, is to create a fairer tax system, in which "billionaires and large corporations (pay) their fair share of taxes."
Whispers
Another donor, Aaron Levie, CEO of Box, says he is optimistic, believing that the tax proposals are a legacy of Biden that may not be binding on his vice president.
Other donors believe that Harris' approach to big business is friendlier than that exhibited by the current occupant of the White House, and that the right amount of pressure could convince her to change her mind.
Harris' moves
Furthermore, there is an evolution in Harris' campaign, notes the NYT , and it is the great attention paid to a crucial area in terms of concentration of wealth such as Silicon Valley.
The area that Harris once represented as a California senator is the subject of a variety of initiatives such as the formation of affinity groups, the appointment of various fund-raisers, or the assignment of specific staff members.
Furthermore, according to the newspaper, the democratic campaign has increased attention towards the cryptocurrency community despite it being considered to have an opposite political orientation. There would also have been meetings with the managers of the main cryptocurrency companies.
These efforts appear to have been rewarded, judging at least by the gigantic sum of $540 million in donations raised by the campaign in just over a month.
Now, however, reciprocity is expected, possibly in the form of less drastic and punitive proposals in tax matters.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/kamala-harris-tasse-ricchi/ on Sun, 01 Sep 2024 05:39:55 +0000.