Congressional lawmakers are still hammering out a deal on President Biden’s multitrillion-dollar spending package that would boost funding for infrastructure and clean energy, along with social spending initiatives.
The president said this week he has agreed to cut the mammoth $3.5 trillion price tag, and reports have suggested lawmakers will land somewhere between $1.75 trillion and $1.9 trillion.
But some Democratic legislators, like Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Az., have said they will not agree to a package that includes tax hikes on corporations and high earners.
Here’s how the Biden administration has proposed paying for the package:
Minimum corporate tax
Biden has advocated for enforcing a 15% minimum tax on corporations across the board, a move the administration has argued will ensure top companies do not skirt paying their “fair share.”
“Some of the biggest corporations in America pay literally nothing in income taxes,” press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Friday. “Fifty-five of the biggest companies – they pay lower rates than wage-earning families. We can stop that by imposing a 15% minimum tax, a minimum corporate tax to make sure large corporations pay their fair share.”
“I’m a capitalist. I hope you can be a millionaire or a billionaire,” he added. “But at least pay your fair share. Chip in a little bit.”
Global minimum tax
Psaki said the president and lawmakers are looking at a global minimum tax to prevent companies from forgoing tax payments by utilizing offshore accounts.
Closing Medicare tax loopholes
“We can also close loopholes for high-income Americans, including a loophole that allows some taxpayers — like hedge fund managers — to escape a Medicare tax imposed on all high-end income,” Psaki outlined Friday.
Cracking down on tax evasion with IRS bank account monitoring
Democrats have backed a proposal to require banks to report annually on any transaction that exceeds $10,000.
The move is an attempt to prevent tax evasion and would require financial institutions to hand over customer account information to the Internal Revenue Service.