President Biden Targets Corporations, the Wealthy in State of the Union

Corporations and billionaires will be paying more in taxes if Congress follows recommendations President Biden gave during his State of the Union address.

President Biden highlighted a number of initiatives during the March 7, 2024, address. For corporations, he said that it is “time to raise the corporate minimum tax to at least 21 percent.”

“Remember in 2020, 55 of the biggest companies in America made $40 billion and paid zero in federal income taxes,” President Biden said. “Zero. Not anymore. Thanks to the law I wrote [and] we signed, big companies have to pay minimum 15 percent. But that’s still less than working people paid federal taxes.”

Additionally, he alluded to further recommendations that will likely be included when the administration released its budget proposal, expected as early as the week of March 11, 2024. This includes limiting tax breaks related to corporate and private jets and capping deductions on certain employees at $1 million.

For billionaires, President Biden is looking to increase their tax rate to 25 percent.

“You know what the average federal taxes for those billionaires [is]?” he asked. ““They’re making great sacrifices. 8.2 percent. That’s far less than the vast majority of Americans pay. No billionaire should pay a lower federal tax rate than a teacher or a sanitation worker or nurse.””

President Biden said this proposal would raise $500 billion over the next 10 years and suggested some of that additional tax money would help strengthen Social Security so that there would be no need to cut benefits or raise the retirement age to extend the life of the Social Security program.