Proposed Biden Tax Could Cost 14 Georgia Billionaires

GEORGIA — Billionaire Tyler Perry and other wealthy Georgia residents could pay 20 percent more in taxes under a “Billionaire Minimum Tax” proposed in President Joe Biden’s fiscal year 2023 budget proposal.

The Biden administration is asking Congress to approve the proposal, part of its efforts to reduce the federal deficit over the next decade while at the same time funding new spending. The proposed tax on the ultra-wealthy would affect fewer than 1 percent of Americans, but “eliminates the inefficient sheltering of income for decades or generations,” the White House said Monday at a news conference.

Under the proposal, households worth more than $100 million would pay at least 20 percent in taxes on both income and “unrealized gains,” or the increase in an unsold investment’s value. Many wealthy people hold onto these investments for decades, meaning they’re never taxed, the administration said.

The tax would apply only to the top one-hundredth of 1 percent of Americans, Biden said at a news conference, but would raise “$360 billion that can be used to lower costs for families and cut the deficit.”

Among those likely affected would be the following Georgia residents with a place on the Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires ranking:

• Jim Kennedy, media/automotive, whose net worth was $8.1 billion at the close of business Tuesday;
• Bubba Cathy, Chick-fil-A, whose net worth was $5 billion at the close of business Tuesday;
• Dan Cathy, Chick-fil-A, whose net worth was $5 billion at the close of business Tuesday;
• Bernard Marcus, Home Depot, whose net worth was $8.5 billion at the close of business Tuesday;
• Arthur Blank, Home Depot, whose net worth was $6.9 billion at the close of business Tuesday;
• John Brown, medical equipment, whose net worth was $5.8 billion at the close of business Tuesday;
• Gary Rollins, pest control, whose net worth was $5.6 billion at the close of business Tuesday;
• Ben Chestnut, email marketing, whose net worth was $5 billion at the close of business Tuesday;
• Dan Kurzius, email marketing, whose net worth was $5 billion at the close of business Tuesday;
• Ted Turner, cable television, whose net worth was $2.3 billion at the close of business Tuesday;
• Joe Rogers Jr., Waffle House, whose net worth was $2 billion at the close of business Tuesday;
• David Zalik, financial technology, whose net worth was $1.9 billion at the close of business Tuesday;
• Ronald Clarke, payments technology, whose net worth was $1.1 billion at the close of business Tuesday;
• Tyler Perry, movies/television, whose net worth was $1 billion at the close of business Tuesday;

“Now, I’m a capitalist, but … if you make a billion bucks, great,” Biden said. “Just pay your fair share. Pay a little bit."

“A firefighter and a teacher pay more than double — double the tax rate that a billionaire pays. That’s not right. That’s not fair.”

The proposed policy is “extremely nuanced,” according to an Associated Press explainer. It would allow wealthy households to spread some payments of their unrealized gains over nine years, and for five years on new income going forward. In effect, the AP explained, the payments are a prepayment on tax obligations they will owe when the investments are sold.

The proposal could be met with resistance by moderate Democrats, including Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Krysten Sinema of Arizona, but it gives Democrats a talking point as inflation reaches a 40-year high. At the same time, for Republicans who oppose it, it creates a political liability of appearing to side with multibillionaires.

Last year, ProPublica published a bombshell report based on unreleased IRS files that showed multibillionaires Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Rupert Murdoch paid very little or sometimes nothing at all in income taxes.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.