{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.crapo.senate.gov/media/newsreleases/crapo-statement-at-hearing-on-how-the-tax-code-affects-high-income-individuals", "Crapo Statement at Hearing on How the Tax Code Affects High-Income Individuals", "2023-11-09", "2023", "2023-11", "Republican", "Senate", "ID", "Mike Crapo", "C000880", "www.crapo.senate.gov", "crapo", "https://www.crapo.senate.gov/media/newsreleases", "scraper", "Washington, D.C.--U.S. Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, delivered the following remarks at hearing entitled \u201cExamining How the Tax Code Affects High-Income Individuals and Tax Planning Strategies.\u201d\n\nAs prepared for delivery:\n\n\u201cThank you, Mr. Chairman.\n\n\u201cI look forward to our discussion today on the effect of the Tax Code on individuals and families as they work, save and invest.\n\n\u201cThe scope of today\u2019s hearing provides members the opportunity to cover a broad range of topics, and we will no doubt hear a number of concerns raised about how the Code treats high-income taxpayers.\n\n\u201cWe should dispel the notion that there is any support for taxpayers who evade their tax obligations; we all agree taxpayers should pay the tax they legally owe.\n\n\u201cFor the gray area of taxpayers who aggressively structure their affairs to reduce their tax liability, we should constantly assess how the Code can better target certain activity.\n\n\u201cBut framing this issue through the subjective lens of \u2018fairness\u2019 often ignores the facts and turns a blind eye to favored incentives.\n\n\u201cRather than focusing on rhetoric, we should examine the data and how the Code affects behaviors.\n\n\u201cThat includes examining provisions that primarily benefit a select group of the financially well-off \u2013 including tax credits for those who can afford expensive electric vehicles, costly energy efficient home upgrades, and proposals to repeal the cap or expand the highly-regressive deduction for State and Local Taxes.\n\n\u201cAs for the data, these are the indisputable facts:\n\nMost of the federal tax burden is paid by high earners;\n\nFederal tax collections have been near all-time highs;\n\nThe voluntary tax compliance rate is high and stable; and\n\nHigher income taxes serve as disincentives to work, save and invest.\n\n\u201cMy Republican colleagues and I remain focused on safeguarding taxpayers and their rights; reducing barriers to work, savings and investment; and promoting opportunity and wealth to improve the quality of life for all Americans.\n\n\u201cIn 2017, Republicans lowered individual rates across the board, with middle-income taxpayers getting the largest proportional benefits.\n\n\u201cRepublicans also simplified filing for many, expanded the child tax credit and limited regressive tax spending like the SALT deduction.\n\n\u201cCritics charged that letting Americans keep more of their earnings would stifle the economy, dry up federal revenue and favor the wealthy.\n\n\u201cInstead, it created one of the strongest economies in our nation\u2019s history, including an unemployment rate that reached a generational low, increased federal tax collections to near all-time highs, grew wages across the income spectrum and expanded job participation.\n\n\u201cAll Americans benefitted.\n\n\u201cNotwithstanding claims that high earners pay the least taxes, the reverse is actually true.\n\n\u201cAccording to the Biden Treasury Department, in 2023, the top 1 percent of earners paid 42.2 percent of all federal income taxes \u2013 the highest \u2013 despite only earning 19 percent of all income.\n\n\u201cIn 2001, the top 1 percent of earners contributed 33.2 percent of income tax revenue, nine points lower.\n\n\u201cIn other words, the country\u2019s income tax burden is more progressive today than it was decades ago.\n\n\u201cExpanding the aperture to examine the top 5 percent of taxpayers \u2013 those with incomes above $200,000 a year \u2013 mirrors this dynamic.\n\n\u201cThese Americans pay 65.3 percent of all federal income taxes while making only 34 percent of all income.\n\n\u201cMeanwhile, federal tax collections reached an all-time high of $4.9 trillion in FY 2022 \u2013 with individual income tax collections contributing the most, growing 29 percent year-over-year.\n\n\u201cIn fact, individual income tax collections reached 10.5 percent of GDP in FY 2022, the highest level on record.\n\n\u201cAll of this is after the impact of Republican-led tax reform.\n\n\u201cIn arguing for tax code fairness, some have pointed to a recent tax gap projection from the IRS, which shows an increase over the previous estimate.\n\n\u201cThis growth actually shows one of the many effects of inflation.\n\n\u201cDespite headlines to the contrary, the tax gap is proportionately flat and historically average relative to the economy\u2019s size.\n\n\u201cAccording to the Cato Institute\u2019s examination of the tax gap as a percentage of GDP, for 2021, that ratio was 2.9 percent, squarely in line with the twenty-year average.\n\n\u201cAnd the voluntary tax compliance rate \u2013 around 85 percent \u2013 remains substantially unchanged.\n\n\u201cWhile we should work to find bipartisan measures to narrow the tax gap, any such effort must be balanced against diminishing returns.\n\n\u201cI look forward to hearing the perspectives of today\u2019s witnesses on how the individual tax system affects taxpayers from all income groups and how increased taxes \u2013 in the midst of high and sustained inflation \u2013 would impact our economy.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T01:01:09Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.crapo.senate.gov/media/newsreleases/crapo-statement-at-hearing-on-how-the-tax-code-affects-high-income-individuals"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4161719009280205, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}