This year, we’re joining with our partners to spend Tax Day on Capitol Hill lobbying Congress to fix our unfair tax code and prioritize having the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share.
As part of our lobbying efforts, we’re planning to deliver petitions to members of Congress.
Please add your name and tell Congress you want a fair tax code for everyday Americans:
Our current tax code is not fair for American families. Here are the steps Congress must take to unrig the tax code and put We the People before corporations, Wall Street, and the wealthy:
1. Roll Back the Tax Giveaways
As a first step, you must repeal the policies enacted through the 2017 and 2025 tax cut packages that showered corporations and the very wealthy with lavish handouts like slashing the corporate tax rate, providing further incentives for offshoring, increasing the estate tax threshold so fewer multimillionaire heirs pay taxes, cutting the top tax rate for individuals, providing a deduction for millionaire hedge fund owners, and other giveaways to corporations and the wealthy. A fairer tax code for everyone means rolling back these harmful tax changes and ensuring that Congress crafts a more progressive tax code that works for everyone, not just the ultra-rich and powerful corporations.
2. Ensure Corporations & Wall Street Pay Their Fair Share
In addition to rolling back the 2017 and 2025 tax giveaways, corporations and the wealthy should pull more of their weight when it comes to taxes, such as by increasing the tax rate for corporations beyond the pre-2017 rate of 35% and closing loopholes that benefit investors and high-paid CEOs over average Americans. We should also strengthen the estate tax. Additionally, we must stop multinational corporations from gaming the tax system, such as by equalizing the domestic and international tax rates and requiring disclosure of country-by-country tax information.
3. New Revenues = New Investments
Our country has an unending list of needed investments around health, childcare, access to higher education, assistance for seniors, addressing climate change, etc. By asking Wall Street and the very wealthy to pay more of their fair share, we will have more money to give a hand up to those who need it most. We can do this by adding a surtax on the incomes of the richest among us, or even by taxing amassed wealth. And, revenues from other new taxes like a Wall Street sales tax (financial transaction tax) also could be reinvested in our communities.
4. An IRS for the People
The investments in the IRS made through the Inflation Reduction Act were a great start, but much of that money has been rescinded and we need to protect the remaining money in the face of attacks. And, while unfortunately the successful Direct File program has been suspended by the Trump II administration, we must continue to tell the story about the benefits the Direct File program provided to tax filers and the ongoing need for the IRS to provide free online tax filing software. Additionally, the IRS must focus on closing the gap between what is owed to the U.S. in taxes and what is paid, especially by ensuring that audits and other enforcement is concentrated more on big-money taxpayers and corporations in order to maximize the agency’s bang for the buck.
