Clinton, Sanders Would Bypass Congress to Tax the Rich—a Bit
- Both target carried-interest and corporate inversions
- Most far-reaching revenue plans would need lawmakers' approval
Hillary Clinton waves while leaving a campaign event in Decorah, Iowa, on Jan. 26, 2016.
Photographer: Daniel Acker/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Most of the proposals that Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have pitched for taxing the rich won’t go anywhere if Republicans keep control of the House of Representatives, as expected.
But spokesmen for both of the leading candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination said this week that they could take executive action, bypassing Congress, to go after a shorter list: the carried-interest tax advantage that investment-fund managers receive, corporate inversions that companies use to move their tax addresses offshore and -- in Sanders’s case, at least -- a few other parts of the tax code that benefit high-income taxpayers.