When it comes to tax policy, there is a lot that needs to be done--including a repeal of the Bush tax cuts for the highest income Americans, higher capital gains taxes on investment income, and closing tax loopholes for private equity and hedge funds.
We should restrict government contracts to American-based corporations and clarify rules on tax shelters so they cannot be used strictly for tax avoidance. At the same time, our tax cuts should be focused on areas that will help working families.
�When our country�s largest companies don�t pay their fair share, it�s the taxpayers, families and small businesses that get stuck with the bill,� said Pingree.
�Ending tax loopholes that allow big corporations to evade taxes by using an overseas P.O. Box is the right thing to do� Pingree said. Her plan would use Maine�s law as a model, and would require more financial disclosure for corporations
Minimum tax rate of 30% for those earning over $1 million.
Pingree co-sponsored Paying a Fair Share Act
Paying a Fair Share Act of 2012:
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to require an individual taxpayer whose adjusted gross income exceeds $1 million to pay a minimum tax rate of 30% of the excess of the taxpayer's adjusted gross income over the taxpayer's modified charitable contribution deduction for the taxable year (tentative fair share tax).
Establishes the amount of such tax as the excess of the tentative fair share tax over the excess of the sum of the taxpayer's regular tax liability, the alternative minimum tax (AMT) amount, and the payroll tax for the taxable year;
Provides for a phase-in of such tax.
Requires an inflation adjustment to the $1 million income threshold for taxable years beginning after 2013.
Expresses the sense of the Senate that Congress should enact tax reform that repeals unfair and unnecessary tax loopholes and expenditures, simplifies the tax system, and makes sure that the wealthiest taxpayers pay a fair share of taxes.
Raising estate tax to 1990s level means $448B in new revenue.
Pingree voted NAY Death Tax Repeal Act
Heritage Action Summary: This bill would repeal the estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes, as well as cut the top gift tax rate.
Heritage Foundation recommendation to vote YES: (4/16/2015): Collectively, these measures repeal the pernicious double tax known as the "death tax," and result in a tax cut of $269 billion over 10 years. The death tax hurts economic growth and therefore limits the ability of Americans to prosper. Repealing the death tax would generate an average of 18,000 jobs annually and increase the overall net worth of American households by $300 billion a year. The federal government should encourage, not punish, Americans who work and pay taxes their whole lives, save enough to support themselves through retirement, and retain the ability to fulfill the American Dream by passing along a better life to their children.
Secretary of Labor Robert Reich recommendation to vote YES: (robertreich.org 6/4/2015):
At a time of historic economic inequality, it should be a no-brainer to raise a tax on inherited wealth for the very rich. Yet there's a move among some members of Congress to abolish it altogether. Today the estate tax reaches only the richest 2/10 of 1%, and applies only to dollars in excess of $10.86 million for married couples or $5.43 million for individuals. That means if a couple leaves to their heirs $10,860,001, they now pay the estate tax on $1. The current estate tax rate is 40%, so that would be 40 cents. Yet according to these members of Congress, that's still too much. Our democracy's Founding Fathers did not want a privileged aristocracy. Yet that's the direction we're going in. The tax on inherited wealth is one of the major bulwarks against it. That tax should be increased and strengthened.
Legislative outcome: Passed by the House 240-179-12; never came to vote in Senate.
Source: Congressional vote 15-H1105 on Apr 16, 2015