Disney Heir Abigail Disney Urges for Ultra Millionaire Tax
This may be among only a few cases of a rich person wanting to part with their money.
Disney heir Abigail Disney is all for paying higher taxes in order to close the wealth gap and help fund improved education.
The Emmy award-winning filmmaker is supporting Senator Elizabeth Warren’s proposed ultra-millionaire tax.
“Yes, I support it strongly,” said Disney on Yahoo Finance’s The First Trade. “I have seen the number of what it would bring in in terms of revenue. We need the revenue in the United States. We need it badly.”
Disney is estimated to have a net worth of more than $120 million.
According to Warren’s proposal, the tax would apply to those with a net worth of $50 million or more, which Warren estimates will touch 75,000 households or the top 0.1% in the U.S. Those households would pay an annual 2% tax on every dollar of net worth above $50 million and a 6% tax on every dollar above $1 billion. According to projections, this would raise $3.75 trillion in revenue per year to fund various social safety net programs.
Disney is a part of the group “Millionaires for Humanity” which recently signed an open letter asking governments to “raise taxes on people like us. Immediately. Substantially. Permanently.”
“As COVID-19 strikes the world, millionaires like us have a critical role to play in healing our world. No, we are not the ones caring for the sick in intensive care wards. We are not driving the ambulances that will bring the ill to hospitals. We are not restocking grocery store shelves or delivering food door to door. But we do have money, lots of it. Money that is desperately needed now and will continue to be needed in the years ahead, as our world recovers from this crisis,” the letter reads.
Disney has said that she is concerned presidential candidate Biden would pass on implementing the tax.
“I mean, Joe Biden for many years carried the interest loophole. We don’t know how much he is going to be able to resist the pressure from the high-dollar donors. That remains to be seen. I will be helping in any way I can. I genuinely believe we have as wealthy people — have not paid our fair share. We benefited disproportionately by a high functioning legal system and infrastructure that works and things like that. But we need to cough up a little bit more to pay our fair share,” she said.