Washington State needs a CAPITAL GAINS TAX! Jeff Bezos is depriving WA from revenue we need!

On August 7, 2019, I received information from the advocacy group “Balance Our Tax Code” (www.balanceourtaxcode.com).   They reported that Jeff Bezos, the founder and major stockholder of Amazon, had just sold $1.8 BILLION worth of Amazon stock.

He has to pay a modest amount of federal taxes, but — because Washington State does NOT have a capital gains tax.

Washington State has THE MOST REGRESSIVE tax system of any state in the U.S.  We are one of only nine states that do NOT have capital gains tax and we are one of very few states that do NOT have an income tax.  As a result, EXTREMELY RICH WASHINGTONIANS SKATE BY WITHOUT HAVING TO PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE of taxes to support the government and the economy that made them rich.

The “Balance Our Tax Code” organization estimated that Bezos probably would have paid about $162 MILLION in state taxes if we had a capital gains tax.  All the rest of us have to make up the difference to balance the state’s budget so we can have schools, social services, environmental protection, justice, and everything else taxes pay for.

Please ask your state legislators to create a capital gains tax.

 

 

 

About GlenAnderson 1499 Articles
Since the late 1960s Glen Anderson has devoted his life to working as a volunteer for peace, nonviolence, social justice, and progressive political issues. He has worked through many existing organizations and started several. Over the years he has worked especially for such wide-ranging goals as making peace with Vietnam, eliminating nuclear weapons, converting from a military economy to a peacetime economy, abolishing the death penalty, promoting nonviolence at all levels throughout society, and helping people organize and strategize for grassroots movements to solve many kinds of problems. He writes, speaks, and conducts training workshops on a wide variety of topics. Since 1987 he has produced and hosted a one-hour cable TV interview program on many kinds of issues. Since 2017 he has blogged at https://parallaxperspectives.org He lives in Lacey near Olympia WA. You can reach him at (360) 491-9093 glen@parallaxperspectives.org