Groups Mobilizing Nationwide Monday, April 18, to Launch Election-Year Campaign Highlighting Largely Untaxed Pandemic Wealth Gains of Billionaires and Need for a Billionaires Income Tax

Featured: Zoom Media Event with Sen. Ron Wyden, Rep. Jamaal Bowman and Robert Reich, Monday, April 18, 1pm ET

Tax Day 2022 (Monday, April 18) will be the launch date of a national campaign highlighting the obscene pandemic wealth growth of America’s billionaires and warning that none of those huge investment gains may ever be taxed unless Congress adopts a billionaires income tax like those proposed by President Joe Biden and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), chairman of the Senate tax-writing committee, and introduced in the House yesterday by Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), Susan Wild (D-PA), Danny K. Davis (D-IL) and Bill Pascrell (D-NJ). 

Groups are mobilizing in Washington, D.C., and across the country to make taxing billionaires an election-year issue. Americans for Tax Fairness has already: 

• Issued a report: “This Tax Day, America’s Working Families Are Paying Their Fair Share but America’s Billionaires Are Not.” It reveals that America’s 740 billionaires got $2 trillion, or 70%, richer over the first two years of the pandemic and yet much of that wealth growth may never be taxed.  
• Launched the #TaxBillionaires campaign website: It explains the outrage of tax-free billionaires and tells the American people what they can do to help end the scandal. 

Here’s a rundown of scheduled activities for Tax Day, Monday, April 18:

• National Zoom Launch of the Tax Billionaires Campaign, at 1:00pm ET. Speakers include Sen. Ron Wyden, author of the Billionaires Income Tax; Rep. Jamaal Bowman, author of the Babies Over Billionaires Act; Robert Reich, Co-Founder of Inequality Media; Rahna Epting, executive director of MoveOn; Margarida Jorge, executive director of Health Care for America Now; and Frank Clemente, executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness.
• #TaxBillionaires Tweetstorm at 2:00 pm ET. Led by Americans for Tax Fairness and its coalition partners, hundreds of social media activists and influencers, including members of Congress, will bring billionaire wealth and tax issues to the attention of the broader public. 
• #ChildTaxCredit Tweetstorm, at 3:00 pm ET. Led by MomsRising with Americans for Tax Fairness, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Children’s Defense Fund, Coalition on Human Needs, Economic Security Project Action, National Women’s Law Center, NETWORK Lobby, and RESULTS. Restoring the improved Child Tax Credit that expired at the beginning of this year is just one of the vital public services a billionaires income tax could help fund. See other options here. 
• State billionaires reports released at separate media events across the country. Nearly every state is the home to billionaires; community groups in many of them will be localizing the problem with state-specific reports on the pandemic-era wealth growth of billionaires, which also show how much increased federal spending on services could flow to states from a billionaires income tax. For state reports go here (most will appear Monday, April 18). 

Groups are using creative methods this tax season to push the need for a billionaires income tax. Women’s March, for instance, is urging supporters to send postcards to Jeff Bezos that include a mocked-up tax form indicating how much he’d owe under President Biden’s Billionaire Minimum Income Tax. 

Oxfam America is leading a petition delivery to Congress in partnership with Americans for Tax Fairness, Daily Kos, and MoveOn together with Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, co-founders of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, with nearly 500,000 signatures in support of making billionaires pay their fair share in taxes.

“Tax Day is when working families settle up with the IRS. But it’s not when most Americans pay their taxes: those payments are made all year long as workers earn their wages. Meanwhile, the main source of income for billionaires and other ultra-wealthy people isn’t taxed all year, often isn’t taxed on Tax Day, and frequently is never taxed,” explained Frank Clemente, Americans for Tax Fairness executive director. “Only with a billionaires income tax can we ensure billionaires finally pay something closer to their fair share of taxes. This is an issue that needs to be the subject of vigorous public debate all the way through the November election and beyond.”

Tax Day, normally April 15, has been postponed to April 18 this year because of a local holiday in the District of Columbia.