On Saturday, President Biden's social media galaxy brains tweeted out a twice-corrected lie, quoting the president telling said lie, that billionaires are getting away paying just 3% of their average earnings in taxes.
"You know the average tax billionaires pay?
THREE PERCENT.
No billionaire should be paying a lower tax than somebody working as a schoolteacher or firefighter," reads the erroneous tweet.
To which Musk replied: "I paid 53% taxes on my Tesla stock options (40% Federal & 13% state), so I must be lifting the average!"
"I also paid more income tax than anyone ever in the history of Earth for 2021 and will do that again in 2022."
I certainly agree that everyone should pay taxes and not engage in elaborate tax-avoidance schemes.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 18, 2023
Would be curious to hear how these other “billionaires” are so good at avoiding taxes!
We should get rid of GRATs, but maybe other things too.
As Ian Bremmer points out, "the 3% number isn't even close to true."
Bremmer's tweet includes a screenshot from CNN, which fact check's the claim and notes that it's from a 2021 finding that found the 400 wealthiest billionaire families pay an average of 8.2% of their income in federal taxes.
In response so Biden's original claim that was fact checked, the White House published a corrected transcript.
the 3% number isn’t even close to true pic.twitter.com/62oX3tKlLx
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) March 19, 2023
Politifact found that the 25 highest-earning billionaires are paying around 16% in federal taxes, while most teachers and firefighters pay between zero and 15%.
On Saturday, President Biden’s social media galaxy brains tweeted out a twice-corrected lie, quoting the president telling said lie, that billionaires are getting away paying just 3% of their average earnings in taxes.
“You know the average tax billionaires pay?
THREE PERCENT.
No billionaire should be paying a lower tax than somebody working as a schoolteacher or firefighter,” reads the erroneous tweet.
To which Musk replied: “I paid 53% taxes on my Tesla stock options (40% Federal & 13% state), so I must be lifting the average!“
“I also paid more income tax than anyone ever in the history of Earth for 2021 and will do that again in 2022.”
I certainly agree that everyone should pay taxes and not engage in elaborate tax-avoidance schemes.
Would be curious to hear how these other “billionaires” are so good at avoiding taxes!
We should get rid of GRATs, but maybe other things too.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 18, 2023
As Ian Bremmer points out, “the 3% number isn’t even close to true.”
Bremmer’s tweet includes a screenshot from CNN, which fact check’s the claim and notes that it’s from a 2021 finding that found the 400 wealthiest billionaire families pay an average of 8.2% of their income in federal taxes.
In response so Biden’s original claim that was fact checked, the White House published a corrected transcript.
the 3% number isn’t even close to true pic.twitter.com/62oX3tKlLx
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) March 19, 2023
Politifact found that the 25 highest-earning billionaires are paying around 16% in federal taxes, while most teachers and firefighters pay between zero and 15%.
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