The D.C. Council appears poised to raise taxes on the city’s wealthiest residents when it meets Tuesday, creating a new top bracket for wage earners with a taxable income of at least $350,000 annually.
Although there could be a last-minute attempt to derail the proposal, a majority of the council has apparently signed onto a plan for a new top bracket of 8.95 percent. If the proposal is approved, the council can revise a controversial new tax on out-of-state bonds as well as appease liberal activists, who have argued that the city needs a more progressive tax structure.
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All District residents who make $40,000 or more pay an 8.5 percent income tax rate. Under a proposal hammered out behind close doors at city hall Monday, the new 8.95 percent rate would go into effect immediately.
The Post kind of buries some critical information about this potential tax hike—-at least for those of us who don’t make more than $350,000 a year: Only about 6,000 people in the city actually make that much money. While Ward 2 Council member Jack Evans calls it a “sorry day in city history,” and worries that the increase will keep rich people from moving to the city, the low number is an indication that even today’s gentrified D.C. isn’t much of a haven for the super-rich.
The more interesting economic question is just why that is.
Update: The tax amendment has passed.