Jamie Dimon says he’s OK with higher taxes on the rich, but wealth tax is ‘almost impossible’

SINGAPORE — J.P. Morgan Chase’s Chief Govt Jamie Dimon mentioned he is not in opposition to greater taxes on the wealthy, however a wealth tax shouldn’t be the way in which to do it.

“A wealth tax is sort of inconceivable to do,” he advised CNBC-TV18 on the J.P. Morgan India summit on Tuesday when he was requested whether or not he is in favor of such a proposal put forth by a number of Democrats.

“I am not in opposition to having greater tax on the rich. However I believe that you simply try this via their revenue versus, you already know, calculate wealth which turns into extraordinarily sophisticated, legalistic, bureaucratic, regulatory, and other people discover 1,000,000 methods round it. I might simply tax revenue,” he mentioned, suggesting that it is more durable to cheat on such a tax as a result of revenue is “given.” 

The rich within the U.S. have began preparing for tax increases which are more likely to come within the coming years as authorities deficits at each state and federal ranges rose because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Governments have elevated spending to handle the well being and financial crises, which on the identical time precipitated their income to fall.

A examine revealed final yr by the Organisation for Financial Co-operation and Improvement discovered that the U.S. lost more tax revenue than another developed nation in 2018, largely on account of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tax cuts.

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden had mentioned that he would roll back most of Trump’s multitrillion-dollar tax cuts — which some studies mentioned benefited businesses and higher-income individuals the most.

However Dimon mentioned the president’s tax insurance policies are amongst a number of the “excellent issues” that he is completed for the U.S. economic system. He defined that the U.S. has historically been a “crimson tape society” with a forms that “slows down lots of enterprise.”

“And I remind individuals, the world, if you decelerate the economic system, you’re hurting the deprived greater than anyone else,” he mentioned.

Dimon additionally mentioned that governments ought to put extra thought into how taxes are structured in order that the economic system can develop.

“There’re taxes which is able to decelerate development, like taxes on capital formation, or labor; and there’re taxes which is not going to have an effect on development like taxes on, you already know, well-to-do individuals like me,” mentioned Dimon.

“And I simply suppose there must be much more thought of taxation … in order for you an energetic, wholesome rising economic system.”