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The outlet said it went through IRS records and found 18 billionaires and hundreds of wealthy people received CARES Act payments meant for taxpayers whomade less than $75,000 a year, or less than $150,000 for a married couple.
A supporter of progressive politics, George has publicly pushed for higher taxes for the rich, as ProPublica pointed out. The outlet acknowledged that his Open Society Foundations have donated to ProPublica, which describes itself as “a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power.”
Also listed are Ira Rennert, founder of the Renco Group, and Glen Taylor, a businessman who agreed to sell his ownership stake in the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx basketball teams toformer baseball player Alex Rodriguez and tech entrepreneur Marc Lorefor a reported $1.5 billion earlier this year.
According toForbes, Rennert is worth$3.7 billion, while Taylor is worth$2.8 billion. Reps for Renner and Taylor did not immediately respond to ProPublica’s requests for comment, and PEOPLE’s attempts to reach them for comment were unsuccessful.
ProPublica reported that the billionaires who received the checks were able to qualify because they fell under the annual income threshold due to business write-offs and deductions.
U.S. government check.Getty
“The wealthy taxpayers who received the stimulus checks got them because they came in under the government’s income threshold. In fact, they reported way less taxable income than that — even hundreds of millions less — after they used business write-offs to wipe out their gains,” the outlet reported.
“The ultrawealthy have other tax advantages. Many can tap a particularly generous vein of deductions: businesses they own,” they added. “These can wipe out all of their income, even for years to come, unlike other deductions, like those for charitable giving. Certain industries, like real estate or oil and gas, are a well-known source of tax benefits that can generate paper losses even for a successful business.”
Taxpayers who made less than $75,000 were able to receive a $1,200 check, while married couples who earned less than $150,000 could receive $2,400.
The report comes amid increased calls for billionaires to be taxed on their investment gains.
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The pandemic has already been financially kind to the uber-wealthy in the United States — according to theInstitute for Policy Studies, billionaires in the U.S. got 62 percent richer and were up $1.8 trillion as of August.
source: people.com
