U.S. Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s tax plan was a hot topic during the 2020 U.S. presidential campaign. U.S. President Donald Trump repeatedly attacked Biden for imposing the “biggest tax increase in history” (not true, by the way). Rapper 50 Cent went viral for balking at projected tax increases for New York State. And the following meme went viral:
Readers may have the mistaken impression it was penned by Dave Ramsey, described by his own social media account as “America’s trusted voice on money,” but we found no such post on Ramsey’s verified Facebook or Twitter accounts.
Snopes fact-checkers did look into many of the claims the post made about Biden’s purported plans for property taxes (False), 401(k) taxes (False), as well as about his past record on tax increases (Mostly True).
It is indeed “a lot” to read the details, as the meme says, especially regarding taxes, but it’s always worth checking the source whenever you see a meme claiming to represent what a third party has or has not said.
For the record, Joe Biden’s website stated the following as of Oct. 29, 2020:
Joe Biden will not raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000. Period. But he will ask wealthy Americans and big corporations to pay their fair share, including by:
- Raising the corporate tax rate to 28 percent.
- Requiring a true minimum tax on ALL foreign earnings of United States companies located overseas so that we do our part to put an end to the global race to the bottom that rewards global tax havens. This will be 21% — TWICE the rate of the Trump offshoring tax rate and will apply to all income.
- Imposing a tax penalty on corporations that ship jobs overseas in order to sell products back to America.
- Imposing a 15% minimum tax on book income so that no corporation gets away with paying no taxes.
- Raising the top individual income rate back to 39.6 percent.
- Asking those making more than $1 million to pay the same rate on investment income that they do on their wages.
