(WGHP) — More than 43,000 millionaires in the United States won’t be getting coronavirus stimulus checks like the rest of Americans, but instead, they’ll be receiving other funds averaging about $1.6 million each, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.
The congressional committee analysis, released by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, revealed that roughly 43,000 individual tax filers who make at least $1 million a year will reap savings of $70.3 billion.
That amounts to about $1.6 million each, the committee found.
Under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, most Americans will receive a $1,200 stimulus check in response to the pandemic. Many Americans started receiving those payments earlier this week.
The act allows pass-through businesses that are taxed under individual income versus corporate an unlimited amount of deductions against their non-business income, such as capital gains, according to The Washington Post. They can also use losses to avoid paying taxes in other years.
Hedge-fund investors and real estate business owners are “far and away” the ones who will benefit the most, tax expert Steve Rosenthal told the Post.
Sen. Doggett claimed that “someone wrongly seized on this health emergency to reward ultrarich beneficiaries.”
“For those earning $1 million annually, a tax break buried in the recent coronavirus relief legislation is so generous that its total cost is more than total new funding for all hospitals in America and more than the total provided to all state and local governments,” he said in a statement.
Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., introduced legislation Tuesday that would provide a $2,000 monthly payment to qualifying Americans until employment returns to pre-COVID-19 levels.
