Biden to continue push for companies, wealthy to pay more tax – White House

US president Joe Biden will continue to fight to make sure the richest Americans and largest corporations do not pay a lower tax rate than middle-class families, the White House has said.

In a statement on Monday, to mark the day when Americans file their income tax returns, the White House said the president would continue to press the US Congress to implement reforms he has proposed that would see companies and the very wealthy pay more.

The White House also reiterated the president’s backing for a minimum global corporate tax rate of 15 per cent, agreed as part of the OECD process last year. The Republic has signed up to the OECD agreement.

“The president believes that profitable corporations shouldn’t pay a lower tax bill than a middle-class family, and shouldn’t be able to avoid taxes by shipping jobs and profits overseas.”

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“President Biden is championing a 15 per cent corporate minimum tax here [in the US] and around the world to ensure that no large profitable corporation gets away with paying $0 in taxes and reversing the massive 2017 Republican [Party] tax cuts, by increasing the corporate tax rate to 28 per cent.”

The Biden administration has proposed raising corporate tax rates as part of its draft budget for 2023. However, the measures would require the support of Congress to be implemented.

The White House also said Mr Biden wanted to end a situation under which very wealthy individuals paid less tax than average workers.

“In recent years, both billionaires and the largest corporations have paid an average tax rate of just 8 per cent. That is less than what a teacher and firefighter can pay. The president’s plan would fix that, and give middle-class families the tax relief they deserve.”

The White House said Mr Biden wanted Congress to pass legislation requiring the wealthiest American households to pay a minimum of 20 per cent on all of their income, including unrealised investment income that currently was untaxed.

“The richest Americans could no longer do what they can now and often pay no tax whatsoever or very little tax on their income and too often escape paying income tax forever. The tax will apply only to the top one-one hundredth of one per cent (0.01 per cent ) of American households – those worth over $100 million, and over half of hundreds of billions raised would come from households worth more than $1 billion.”

The White House also said the president wanted to repeal “tax giveaways for the wealthiest Americans” introduced by Republicans in 2017 by restoring the top income tax rate for those making more than $400,000.