Psaki says tax increase on high earners will apply to ‘families,’ not ‘individuals’

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White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday that under President Biden’s plan to increase taxes on wealthy, families, rather than individuals making less than $400,00 could pay more. 

In a Wednesday interview with ABC News, Biden had seemed to refer to individuals when he talked about a tax hike.

“Yes, anybody making more than $400,000 will see a small to a significant tax increase,” Biden told news anchor George Stephanopoulos. 

“If you make less than $400,000, you won’t see one single penny in additional federal tax,” Biden added. 

“On the president’s interview, he said on taxes that anybody making more than $400,000, we’ll see a small to a significant tax increase to clarify, did he mean individuals or households? Because it wasn’t very clear. And Secretary Yellen, I think, has referred to households before,” a reporter asked in Psaki’s daily briefing.

“Families,” Psaki replied. She didn’t say if the threshold would be lower for single filers. 

Previous reporting has been unclear whether the tax increase would apply to married couples or individuals. Bloomberg, citing White House sources, reported this week the tax rate would apply to individuals making above the $400,000 threshold.

A $400,000 household income would put a family in the wealthiest 1.8 percent of Americans, according to the IRS.

Biden’s tax hike, according to Bloomberg, would also raise the corporate rate from 21 to 28 percent, raise capital gains taxes on those making over $1 million, expand the estate tax, and pare back tax preferences for certain businesses.

Biden said he may not be able to get any Republican support for the increase but sounded confident he’d get Democratic votes. 

“I may not get it [GOP support], but I’ll get the Democratic votes for a tax increase,” Biden said. “If we just took the tax rate back to what it was when Bush was president — top rate paid 39.6% in federal taxes — that would raise $230 billion,” he told ABC News. 

He added: “Yet they are complaining because I am providing a tax credit for child care? For the poor? For the middle class?”

An analysis of Biden’s campaign tax plan conducted by the Tax Policy Center estimated it would raise $2.1 trillion in new revenue over a decade.

The tax increase is meant to offset costs in Biden’s next spending package, an infrastructure and green jobs plan that could cost upward of $4 trillion, more than double the latest Covid-19 stimulus bill. 

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