The 25 richest Americans have paid less federal taxes than the average American in recent years!

This is what the ProPublica investigation site in the United States reveals, in the first part of an investigation carried out using documents received from an anonymous source within the IRS (the American agency in charge of tax).

DECRYPTION

What excites the American press this Wednesday morning is not Joe Biden's visit to the United Kingdom, but rather the tax bill of billionaires, it seems quite light.

The revelations are signed by the independent media ProPublica, in the midst of a global debate on the increase in the taxation of multinationals.

Jeff Bezos, the boss of Amazon, did not pay any federal tax in 2007 and 2011. Ditto for Elon Musk in 2018. And this legally.

Yet they are part of the three largest fortunes in the world ... These documents, received from an anonymous source within the IRS (the American agency in charge of tax collection), reveal the flagrant inequality of the tax system American.

A billionaire can pay a lower tax rate than a single person earning $ 45,000 a year

Even when the "25 richest Americans pay according to the most conventional measure: income," says the ProPublica site in an article titled "You may pay a higher tax rate than a billionaire", and even though some "declare very large sums", "they still pay surprisingly low rates".

Indeed, notes the media, which calculated a tax rate in comparison with the increase in the wealth of billionaires (which does not correspond to the legal calculation of tax in the United States), "on average, they have paid 15.8% in federal personal income taxes between 2014 and 2018. They had $ 86 billion in adjusted gross income and paid $ 13.6 billion in income taxes during that period. C 'that's less than the rate a single worker earning $ 45,000 a year could pay if you include Medicare and Social Security taxes. " 

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Legal deductions that risk reviving the debate on injustices in the United States

According to the

New York Times,

plutocrats are taking advantage of loopholes and perfectly legal deductions to minimize their taxes.

Much of their wealth, stocks of companies they run, vacation homes, yachts, are not considered taxable.

The

Washington Post

recalls that Joe Biden has already denounced the injustice of the American tax system in favor of the richest, because there is no wealth tax.

Precisely, for Politico, these revelations will undoubtedly revive the debate on the taxation of the most privileged and calls for a wealth tax.