Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) told reporters he will introduce his “Buffett Rule” legislation on Wednesday, and is currently seeking cosponsors while he awaits a score from the Joint Committee on Taxation.
The bill would amend the tax code to require that people earning over $1 million pay at least a 30 percent tax rate — following the principle that President Obama put forth at his State of the Union last week.
“You basically add a line to the tax form that says, if your income is over $1 million, multiply it by 0.3 and if that number is bigger than what you’d otherwise be paying, pay that,” Whitehouse said on a conference call Monday. “It’s sort of like a minimum tax. It doesn’t go into the tax rate or deductions and try to unwind them. You can adjust out of it your charitable contributions but they still count toward the million, they just don’t count toward the 30 percent.”
Whitehouse said he’s not sure when the bill may come up for a vote, or in what form, and isn’t aware of companion legislation in the House at this point. The news of this upcoming proposal was first reported last week by The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent.
