{"id":21558,"date":"2013-07-12T09:00:13","date_gmt":"2013-07-12T08:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=21558"},"modified":"2013-07-12T09:00:13","modified_gmt":"2013-07-12T08:00:13","slug":"a-tax-plan-for-the-us-from-its-almost-sole-independent-voice-is-pretty-close-to-what-we-need-in-the-uk-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2013\/07\/12\/a-tax-plan-for-the-us-from-its-almost-sole-independent-voice-is-pretty-close-to-what-we-need-in-the-uk-too\/","title":{"rendered":"A tax plan for the US from its almost sole independent voice is pretty close to what we need in the UK too"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I was intrigued by this, from the web site of the US's only\u00a0independent\u00a0Senator - <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sanders.senate.gov\/newsroom\/news\/?id=3817526a-b3ea-4952-bcd7-119a98f1f664\" target=\"_blank\">Bernie Sanders from Vermont<\/a>. He has said:<\/p>\n<p><em>WASHINGTON, July 10 \u2014 Skeptical of a bid to overhaul the tax code by corporate-friendly congressional tax writers, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today laid out specific proposals to raise revenue by closing loopholes that let multi-national corporations and oil companies avoid hundreds of billions of dollars in taxes.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., chairmen of the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee, this summer launched a nationwide tour to hear what corporations want in a revamped tax code.\u00a0\u00a0 Instead, Sanders said, the tax code should be reformed to address the needs of the middle class and working families, reduce deficits and make profitable corporations and the wealthiest Americans pay their fair share.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cI agree that our current tax code is too complex and must be simplified,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cBut at a time when the American population is aging and investments in our crumbling infrastructure are desperately needed, we must not provide more tax breaks to profitable corporations and wealthiest Americans who already are doing phenomenally well and in some cases pay nothing in federal income taxes,\u201d added Sanders, a member of the Senate Budget Committee and Joint Economic Committee.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Sanders\u2019 specific proposals would:<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Stop large corporations from stashing their profits in the Cayman Islands and other offshore tax havens to avoid paying U.S. taxes.\u00a0 Legislation already introduced by Sanders would raise more than $590 billion over the next decade.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Establish a Wall Street speculation fee to ensure that large financial institutions pay their fair share in taxes.\u00a0 A speculation fee of 0.03 percent on the sale of credit default swaps, derivatives, options, futures, and large amounts of stock would reduce gambling on Wall Street, encourage the financial sector to invest in the productive economy, and reduce the deficit by $352 billion over 10 years.\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><em>End tax breaks and subsidies for big oil, gas and coal companies to reduce the deficit by more than $113 billion over the next 10 years.\u00a0 The five largest oil companies in the United States have made more than $1 trillion in profits over the past decade.\u00a0 Exxon Mobil is now the most profitable corporation in the world.\u00a0 Large, profitable fossil fuel companies do not need a tax break.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Tax capital gains and dividends the same as work.\u00a0 Taxing capital gains and dividends the same way that we tax work would raise more than $500 billion over the next decade.\u00a0 The top marginal income tax for working is 39.6 percent, but the top tax rate on corporate dividends and capital gains is only 20. \u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Enacting all of these proposals would raise more than $1.5 trillion in new revenue over the next decade.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>There are three things Sanders has got right. The first is that we don't now need to listen to large\u00a0corporations\u00a0on the issue of tax - they've\u00a0already\u00a0had their say. The mess we have is in no small part the result of that.<\/p>\n<p>Second, we do need a financial transaction tax, in the US and here.<\/p>\n<p>Third, we need to end tax breaks to ensure that those able to pay do pay so that those in need get the services that are essential to their well-being.<\/p>\n<p>The sad thing is that it takes an\u00a0independent\u00a0voice to say that. But maybe it's also important to note that too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was intrigued by this, from the web site of the US&#8217;s only\u00a0independent\u00a0Senator &#8211; Bernie Sanders from Vermont. He has said: WASHINGTON, July 10 \u2014<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2013\/07\/12\/a-tax-plan-for-the-us-from-its-almost-sole-independent-voice-is-pretty-close-to-what-we-need-in-the-uk-too\/\"><em> Read the full article&#8230;<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tax-avoidance","category-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21558\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}