The Wealth Tax as The Trojan Horse to Curtail Charitable Incentives?The Wealth Tax as The Trojan Horse to Curtail Charitable Incentives?

The accelerating gap in both income and wealth inequality has attracted discussion along the 2020 presidential campaign trail as well as in the popular press. The top 1 percent of income earners owns 22 percent of national income.¹ The richest 5 percent of wealth holders owns two-thirds of America’s wealth.² Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has proposed a tax of 2 percent on wealth over $50 million and 3 percent on assets over $100 million.³ Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has proposed a top rate of 70 percent on taxable incomes over $10 million.⁴ Opinion polls suggest the appeal of the “wealthy” paying more.5 

Let’s examine these proposals to determine their feasibility of design and implementation and project the impl...