www.PeopleNow.org
Implementing the UN SDGs and Green New Deal
“By far the most important initiative and best opportunity for reform in the world ever”
Draft
Proposed
SDG Target 10.3 - Target Action Plan 32
Reform Taxes:
● Enact a flat percentage net assets tax on all individuals, corporations, businesses and other entities with reasonable taxation thresholds.
● Provide generous tax deductions based on the worthiness of the charitable contributions by the taxpayer.
● Phase out income, sales, payroll, estate, corporate and all other taxes and fees except the net assets tax.
● Phase out ownership of money, land and all natural resources by any entity other than people and co-ops of people with reasonable limits on each that any individuals may own.
● Remove all tax loopholes.
● Ensure reasonable net asset and income equality in the U.S. and ultimately inside and among all countries
(Updated April 30, 2021)
Please provide proposed additions and recommendations to PeopleNow.org by email RefineThePlan@PeopleNow.org and fax 703-521-0849.
A calm and humble life will bring more happiness than the pursuit of success
and the constant unrest that accompanies it.
TAP
32 Reform Taxes
32.1 Introduction and Background:
32.1.1 Most tax codes including the recently enacted H.R. 1: Tax Cuts and Jobs Act are regressive, voluminous, complicated and one of the causes of widespread poverty and inequality, unemployment and hopelessness. It is very ineffective for the government to have the poor pay sales and payroll taxes then give them food stamps. Those who cannot afford to pay should not be taxed.
32.1.2 Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett in their book, The Spirit Level: Why Great Equality Makes Societies Stronger, show that as inequality increases, social ills, (including poverty, crimes, suicides, drug abuse, child abuse, violence, divorce, bad health and the stress on both the wealthy and poor) increases dramatically
32.1.3 Once the people understand that inequality causes poverty and that saving the lives of over 10,000 children dying per day due to malnutrition and preventable diseases— is more important than hoarding money.
32.1.4 One of the biggest problems standing in the way of progress is the greed of many of our millionaires and all of our billionaires. No one needs a billion dollars which is a thousand million dollars (1,000 x $1,000,000.00) or even hundred million dollars (100 x $1,000,000.00).
32.1.5 One of the underlying causes of poverty and inequality is greed, caused by bad habits developed in early childhood depending upon the family, parents, siblings, conditions, environment, etc., described in the book “The Sin of Obedience” (https://tinyurl.com/y3kq5x96), specifically Chapter Eighteen “Is it Need or Greed that Drives You” (https://bit.ly/2N3d32j).
32.1.6 Please read at least the following in the book “Sin of Obedience”:
32.1.6.1 In the first paragraph on page 54 beginning with “The first imprinting on our nervous system…“
32.1.6.2 All of chapter 11 “Oblique Hostility” in particular:
32.1.6.3 The second paragraph on page 57 beginning with “Individuals … on the useful side of life… have a feeling of ‘live and let live’ ”
32.1.6.4 The information about Forward-Moving Words and Moving-Away-From Words on page 70
32.1.6.5 The “Three Main Steps” beginning in the third paragraph on page 73
32.1.6.6 The information about “Group Therapy” beginning on the third paragraph on page 74
32.1.6.7 Chapter 18 titled “Is It Need or Greed That Drives You?”
32.1.7 This draft plan proposes a tax code that:
32.1.7.1 Creates more jobs and higher wages: Provides more customers with funds to buy more products from large and small co-ops, corporations, companies and small businesses.
32.1.7.2 Is simple, efficient and with fewer tax brackets and no loopholes: This plan has one tax and one bracket which will probably reduce the 73,954 pages it takes to explain U.S. federal tax code to less than 400 pages and eliminate all loopholes.
32.1.7.3 Fairer and lowers taxes for middle-class [and poor] families: Lowers the amount of taxes to what people can afford to pay which is zero for the poor, hungry and homeless.
32.1.7.4 Easy to understand: Very similar to property taxes on cars, homes, lands etc. which almost all adults have paid and understand.
32.1.7.5 Predictable: Taxes are certain and easily calculated with one simple formula.
32.1.7.6 Gets rid of loopholes:
32.1.7.7 Will provide tax cuts for co-ops and small businesses that can’t afford high taxes.
32.1.7.8 Provides equality: This reform tax plan will also help reduce the largest wealth divide of all times.
32.1.8 Will be implemented in coordination with all the other SDG TAPs, in particular
32.1.8.1 Outline of estimated costs and sources of funds, including cost avoidance measures, to operate the government, etc.
32.1.9 The fact that no matter how progressive income-taxes become, progressive income-taxes alone will not reverse the wealth divide. and provide customers to grow the
economy. In the title of his Nov 18, 2012 New York Times article, Daniel Altman states
the obvious: To Reduce Inequality, Tax Wealth, Not Income.
In his article, which is
Attachment A to this plan, Mr Altman also states that “Scholars have recommended a
wealth tax in the past and explains his proposal in detail and its merits. For example,
Thomas Picketty’s proposed a “wealth tax” in his book: Capital in the 21st Century.
32.1.10 Since individuals can have funds invested in corporations and banks and they can own mortgages and loans, the progressive net-asset tax must be on both individuals and corporations, companies and other entities.
Table of Contents
32.1 Introduction and Background
32.4.2 Provide Generous Tax Deductions Based on Worthiness, of the Charitable Causes Being Supported
32.4.9 Eliminate all tax loopholes
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Provide a universal plan to enact very progressive tax on the net assets of all individuals, corporations, companies, businesses and other entities with over $500 thousand (amount optional depending upon location) of net assets. Provide generous tax deductions for charitable donations depending upon the worthiness of the charitable-cause. Eliminate sale, payroll, income, estate, corporate and all other taxes at all levels of government and simplify the tax code.
The objectives of this plan includes
32.3.1 Implement UN SDG Goal 10: “Eliminate excessive income and net assets inequality, including land and all natural resources, within and among countries,
32.3.2 Implement UN SDG Target 10.3 Ensure equal opportunity and reduce inequalities of outcome, including by eliminating discriminatory laws, policies and practices and promoting appropriate legislation, policies and action in this regard
32.3.3 Markedly reduce the high levels of inequality and help permanently end poverty.
32.3.4 Greatly simplify and reform tax codes and practices, reduce the cost of tax collections and ultimately provide everyone the opportunity to do meaningful work and use their net worth and earnings wisely.
32.3.5 Help divide up the”too big to fail” financial institutions.
32.3.6 Help phase in co-ops
32.4.1 Enact a flat percentage net assets tax on all individuals, corporations, companies, businesses and other entities with reasonable taxation thresholds. A tax bracket of zero percent taxes up to $500,000 of net assets has been suggested for individuals
32.4.1.1 Net assets includes everything a person or entity owns cash, bank deposits, stock, bonds, gold, silver, retirement accounts, and the value of all land, homes, property, buildings, facilities, cars, trucks, equipment, gold, silver, natural resources and mineral right, accounts receivable, etc. minus all debts, mortgages, bills, accounts payable, etc. inside and outside the U.S., etc..
32.4.1.2 Entities include corporations, companies, hedge funds, businesses shadowy banks, PACS, super PACS, non-profits and other entities.
32.4.1.3 According to Forbes 2000 2017, the 565 largest U.S. corporations and companies had $40 trillion of net assets including over two trillion in cash in early 2017. These companies are mostly not investing or hiring.
32.4.1.4 Families in the U.S. have more than $70 trillion in net assets. Since some of this $70 trillion is double-counted in the corporations $40 trillion. It is safe to say that there is at least $85 trillion in taxable assets-and-property, most of which is concentrated in the wealthy 1%, the too big to fail banks, Wall Street firms, and large corporations
32.4.1.5 This net asset tax must be enacted worldwide. “In March 2018, Forbes reported that it had identified 2,208 billionaires from 72 countries and territories. Collectively, this group was worth $9.1 trillion, an increase in wealth of 18 percent”
32.4.2 Provide Generous Tax Deductions Based on Worthiness, of the Charitable Causes Being Supported. The U.S. has 375,000 millionaires, About 80,000 of these millionaires have over $30 +million, and about six hundred of them are billionaires. Encourage prosperous individuals to adopt/support:
32.4.2.1 Developing countries, parts of countries, states, cities, towns, neighborhoods
32.4.2.2 Important causes and projects. For example, T. Boone Pickens could fund and help manage the development of wind power. Others could take on water, solar power, prison reform, clean air, power distribution, or “adopt” cities, entire countries, etc. These projects should roughly mirror the congressionalr appropriate committee/subcommittee and department/division. Another example—according to Wealth-X—there are 500 individuals with net assets of over $30 million in Washington DC. one or more of these millionaires could adopt the Homeless Shelter in the old DC General Hospital. This would be therapeutic to the donors in particular if they take a non-paying, active cooperative role in the projects that they support. Major donors would also be recognized for their donations and works as is Andrew Carnegie for the 3,000 libraries and the many schools and universities he established in the United States and other countries.
32.4.3 The formula for the net asset tax is rate% times [$net assets minus ($threshold plus $bona fide charitable donations)]. Assuming a taxable base of $85 trillion, a 5% tax rate would produce about $4 trillion in taxes. Individuals, companies and other entities that have more than $1 million dollars of net assets will pay their taxes monthly at 1/12th the annual rate.
32.4.4 Phase out income, sales, payroll, estate, corporate, employment, excise and all other taxes and fees except the net asset tax. This includes phasing out the many miscellaneous taxes and fees on phone, cable, utility bills, etc. A list of these taxes are provided in the document Taxes that Arlington Residents Pay at www.WeThePeopleNow.org/arlington_va_taxes.pdf.
32.4.5 Phase out profits, interest, investors, ownership of money, land, natural resources, copyrights, intelligent information by any corporation, company or entity other than people and co-ops with reasonable limits on each that any individual or co-op may own.
32.4.6 Ensure reasonable net asset and income equality in the U.S. and ultimately inside and among all countries.
32.4.6.1 Obviously one person or a very few people should not own all the land, buildings and homes in a city or even a village and charge whatever they want for rent. That’s where we are heading. For example, the 49 largest banking and financial companies in the U.S. have $22.1 trillion in assets in 2018 which they do not need to provide banking and financial services.
32.4.7 Develop a comprehensive information and education plan for this Target Action Plan in the Global Factual Information and Education Program
32.4.8 End tax havens and recoup the missed taxes on funds in tax havens and return them to the Government and people .
32.4.9 Eliminate all tax loopholes.
32.4.10 Congress pass the Bring Jobs Home Act or equivalent that would eliminate the tax breaks that encourage companies to close factories here and send jobs and work to countries like China to avoid paying taxes.
32.5.1 Altman, Daniel, "To Reduce Inequality, Tax Wealth, Not Income," New York Times, November 18, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/19/opinion/to-reduce-inequality-tax-wealth-not-income.html?nl=opinion&emc=edit_ty_20121119&_r=0&pagewanted=print
32.5.2 Both the income and wealth divides (inequality) between the richest individuals and the middle class and poor are at record highs and continue to grow exponentially as compound interest compounds on compounded interest
32.5.3 Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett in their book The Spirit Level: Why Great Equality Makes Societies Stronger, show that as inequality increases, social ills, including crimes, suicides, drug abuse, child abuse, violence, divorce, bad health and the stress on both the wealthy and poor increases dramatically. It also shows that even the wealthy are more stressed in societies with greater inequality.
32.5.4 The following is paraphrased from the article What Does the Bi-Partisan Debt-Ceiling "Compromise" Mean for Workers? by Josh Lucker and other sources.
32.5.4.1 The wealthiest 1% of Americans own 42% of the wealth, while the top 10% own 85%. The rate of taxation on the wealthiest 400 Americans averages only 18%. Taxation on the highest earners has declined from a rate of around 90% in the 1960's to 35% percent today. Corporate tax rates have had a similar decline, from 50% in the 60s to around 30% today. Two thirds of U.S. corporations, one million two hundred thousand companies, paid nothing in taxes between 1998 and 2005, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office, which also reported that these "no tax" corporations made $2.5 trillion of dollars in sales. 25% of these "no tax" corporations were "large corporations" by the GAO's standards.
32.5.5 Senator Bernie Sanders has compiled a list of large U.S. corporations that don't pay any taxes, His list include the likes of Exxon Mobil, Bank of America, General Electric, Chevron, Boeing, Valero Energy, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, ConocoPhilips, and Carnival Cruise Lines. While this is obviously far from a comprehensive list, if one were seriously concerned with "balancing the budget," "averting national crisis," "meeting our obligations," and "paying our debts," the corporations listed above should be the first to "tighten their belts."
Income from work is taxed at a much higher rate than income from investments.
Some individuals hide funds and don’t pay taxes on income from deposits in offshore-foreign banks or investments in foreign or multinational businesses.
Under current unfair, unjust laws, home and auto owners pay property taxes on their homes and automobiles. Banks, corporations and their employees and stockholders pay no taxes on mortgages, loans, stocks, derivatives, gold bullion, mineral rights, etc. that they hold.
No matter how progressive income taxes are, if an individual spends less than his total net income after taxes, his/her net assets will increase. If a corporation’s revenue exceeds expenses, that is they have a profit, the corporation’s wealth will also increase.
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Attachment: A
To Reduce Inequality, Tax Wealth, Not Income by Daniel Altman, New York Times, November 18, 2012.http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/19/opinion/to-reduce-inequality-tax-wealth-not-income.html?nl=opinion&emc=edit_ty_20121119&_r=0&pagewanted=print
WHETHER you’re in the 99 percent, the 47 percent or the 1 percent, inequality in America may threaten your future. Often decried for moral or social reasons, inequality imperils the economy, too; the International Monetary Fund recently warned that high income inequality could damage a country’s long-term growth. But the real menace for our long-term prosperity is not income inequality — it’s wealth inequality, which distorts access to economic opportunities.
Wealth inequality has worsened for two decades and is now at an extreme level. Replacing the income, estate and gift taxes with a progressive wealth tax would do much more to reduce it than any other tax plan being considered in Washington.
When economists try to measure inequality, they typically focus on income, because the data are most readily accessible. But income is not always a good gauge of economic power. Consider a group of people who all have high incomes but differ widely in their wealth. Who’s going to get into the country club? Who’s going to have the money to finance a new venture? Moreover, income data may not reveal the true economic power of people who are retired, or who receive their pay in securities like stocks and options or use complex strategies to avoid taxes.
Trends in the distribution of wealth can look very different from trends in incomes, because wealth is a measure of accumulated assets, not a flow over time. High earners add much more to their wealth every year than low earners. Over time, wealth inequality rises even as income inequality stays the same, and wealth inequality eventually becomes much more severe.
This is exactly what happened in the United States. A common statistical measure of inequality is the Gini coefficient, a number between 0 and 100 that rises with greater disparities. From the late 1970s through the early 1990s, the Census Bureau recorded Gini coefficients for income in the low 40s. Yet by 1992, the Gini coefficient for wealth had risen into the mid-70s, according to data from the Federal Reserve.
Since then, it has risen steadily, to about 80 as of 2010. In 1992, the top tenth of the population controlled 20 times the wealth controlled by the bottom half. By 2010, it was 65 times. Our graduated income-tax system redistributes a small amount of money every year but does little to slow the polarization of wealth.
These are stunning changes. The global financial crisis did make a dent in the assets of the wealthiest American families, but its effects for the bottom half were utterly destructive; the number of owner-occupied homes has fallen by more than a million since 2007. People in different socioeconomic strata are living ever more different lives, with dangerous results for society: erosion of empathy, widening of rifts and undermining of meritocracy.
American household wealth totaled more than $58 trillion in 2010. A flat wealth tax of just 1.5 percent on financial assets and other wealth like housing, cars and business ownership would have been more than enough to replace all the revenue of the income, estate and gift taxes, which amounted to about $833 billion after refunds. Brackets of, say, zero percent up to $500,000 in wealth, 1 percent for wealth between $500,000 and $1 million, and 2 percent for wealth above $1 million would probably have done the trick as well.
These tax rates would garner a small portion of the extra wealth America’s richest families could expect to accrue simply by investing what they already had. The rates would also be enough to slow — if not reverse — the increase in inequality. To see how the wealth tax would work, consider a family with $500,000 in wealth and $200,000 in annual income. Right now, they might pay $50,000 in federal income tax. With the wealth tax brackets described above, they would pay nothing. On the other hand, a family with $4 million in wealth and $200,000 in annual income would owe $65,000. Most families that depend on their wealth for their income would pay more, and most that depend on their earnings would pay less.
In fact, the majority of American families would receive an enormous tax cut. Some would owe only payroll taxes (for Social Security and Medicare) and state and local taxes every year, and others would pay less in wealth tax than they did in income tax. Taxes on earnings, capital gains, dividends and interest, all of which may distort decisions about working and investing, would disappear.
For most families, whose wealth may never reach $500,000, all disincentives to save would vanish. And families trying to accumulate a fixed amount of wealth for retirement or their children’s college fund could devote less of their incomes to saving, since in most cases the wealth tax would take a smaller bite of their interest, dividends and capital gains than the current income tax. Though the remaining minority of families subject to the wealth tax might end up saving less and spending more, this shift would also reduce inequality; the dollars they spent would be more likely to end up in the pockets of people with less wealth.
Scholars have recommended a wealth tax in the past, but not as a replacement for the income, estate and gift taxes. Indeed, phasing in the new tax would present some complications. People who already paid income tax on the money they used to buy their assets would not want to pay a new tax on them. Yet a reduced wealth tax — perhaps 1 percent in the top bracket to start — would collect less from many of them than the current income tax.
Naturally a cottage industry would spring up to help wealthy people lessen their exposure to the new tax. The federal government would need new rules for the reporting and valuation of assets, as well as new auditing processes. Levying the tax at the family level — perhaps parents and children up to a fixed age — might make it harder for the wealthy to reduce their tax liability by allocating their assets among multiple family members to reduce the wealth-tax liability.
By contrast, people with wealth tied up in property and small businesses might have real trouble coming up with enough cash to pay the tax. This is a problem that can be solved, or at least mitigated, by making payment periods flexible over several years. In addition, new financial products could offer cash for tax payments, either as loans or in return for partial ownership of assets — much like home equity loans do today.
States with income taxes would have to decide whether to switch to the wealth tax. Because some states collect tax from commuters who work within their borders but live elsewhere, an income tax might still be attractive. Yet rather than having two systems, it might be better to apportion state wealth taxes between the states where families live and work.
The benefits of the wealth tax would make these adjustments worthwhile. The economy would allocate opportunities more equitably and efficiently, and the tax system would become simpler. It would help working class people to realize their potential and ensure that society did not become unduly polarized. Of course, we can do much more to improve access to opportunity for all Americans. But a wealth tax would be a good place to start.
Daniel Altman, an adjunct associate professor of economics at the New York University Stern School of Business and a former member of the New York Times editorial board, is writing a book about what would happen if the United States defaulted on its debts.
A version of this op-ed appeared in print on November 19, 2012, on page A21 of the New York edition with the headline: To Reduce Inequality, Tax Wealth, Not Income.