For Immediate Release: Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Contact: Phoebe Silag or Karen Conner, news@epi.org 202-775-8810

Buffett Rule needed to restore tax fairness

 As the tax filing deadline of April 17 approaches, President Obama is again calling on Congress to implement the Buffett Rule, the principle that millionaires should not pay a smaller share of their income in taxes than what is paid by middle-class families. In short, the key element of tax fairness embodied by the Buffett Rule is that effective tax rates should rise with income. Today’s Snapshot uses IRS data to show that income tax rates actually start falling at high income levels because of the preferentially low tax rates on capital gains and dividends.