Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Jim Webb, D-Va., have introduced legislation that would impose a tax on large bonuses paid by Wall Street banks and other firms that received more than $5 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program in 2009.
The Taxpayer Fairness Act would impose a 50 percent excise tax on the bonuses of employees at these firms that exceeded $400,000 in 2009. Any employee who received a bonus larger than $400,000 the salary of the president of the United States would have to pay a 50 percent tax on the portion of the bonus over $400,000. Only bonuses received in 2009 would be affected. The revenues generated would be used to reduce the deficit or to help the nation recover from the recession.
To avert a financial collapse, taxpayers saved too big to fail companies, said Boxer in a statement. It is outrageous that these companies are now doling out millions of dollars in bonuses while the rest of America feels the pain of their reckless decisions.
Last month, Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., introduced a similar bill, the Wall Street Bonus Tax Act, co-sponsored by 23 other lawmakers in the House (see