Peter Schiff At Odds With Bernie Sanders Over Taxing Rich, Calls Upon Democrats To Cut Taxes: 'They're Already Paying 40% Of The Federal Income Tax'

The Democrats’ call for taxing the rich hasn’t gone well with economist and gold bull Peter Schiff, who suggested the party should approach the problem the other way around.

What Happened: Democrats clamor for the rich to pay their fair share of taxes but they are already paying 40% of the federal income tax, said Schiff in a post on Sunday. “That means the rich already pay far more than their fair share,” he said.

If the rich were to pay their fair share of taxes, the Democrats should cut their taxes, he added.

#Democrats keep insisting that the rich must pay their fair share of taxes. But the top 1% currently pays 40% of the federal income tax. That means the rich already pay far more than their fair share. If Democrats want the rich to pay their fair share, they must cut their taxes.

— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) September 15, 2024

Schiff also said 40% of Americans pay no federal income tax at all. “Are Democrats going to insist that the poor start paying their fair share?” he asked.

To a question from one of his followers regarding some corporations such as Amazon paying taxes at a far lower rate, the economist said their shareholders pay taxes and many of Amazon’s shareholders aren’t rich, he said.

See Also: Best Growth Stocks Right Now

Why It’s Important: Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced President Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket, has come under criticism for her proposal to impose unrealized capital gains tax, which is dubbed Harris’ billionaire minimum tax. The new proposal calls upon Americans with net wealth above $100 million to pay a minimum effective tax rate of 25% on an expanded measure of income that includes their unrealized capital gains, according to the Tax Foundation.

Commenting on the proposal, the nonpartisan, tax policy non-profit said the proposal would “take the tax code in the wrong direction by imposing a complicated tax on a narrow segment of high-earning taxpayers in a way that's never been tried.”

“This proposal would add new compliance burdens for taxpayers and administrative challenges for the IRS while weakening the US economy by raising the tax burden on saving and entrepreneurship,” it added.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) said in a recent interview that about 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck and the gap between the rich and poor is growing wider. He also opined that Harris should go higher than the 28% she has proposed. “When you have got three people on top earning more wealth than the bottom half of American society, where billionaires pay an effective tax rate lower than truck drivers or nurses, yeah, you can substantially raise taxes on the billionaire class and the people on top,” he said.

Republican candidate Donald Trump’s tax proposals are considered to be far more business-friendly, as he has pledged to reduce the tax rates and make up for the shortfall through income generated out of additional tariffs. However, economists caution regarding the tariffs stoking import price inflation and in turn economy-wide inflationary pressure.

The iShares TIPS Bond ETF TIP, an ETF tracking the investment results of an index composed of inflation-protected U.S. Treasury bonds, ended Friday's session up 0.34% at $110.44, according to Benzinga Pro data.

Read Next:

• Bernie Sanders Says If You’re Poor In America You’ll Live 10-15 Years Less: ‘Anybody Else See A Problem With That?’

Image via Shutterstock