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Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, offered a perfect example why domestic policy should not be so focused on the tax code. Because, in truth, he doesn’t even know his own marginal tax rate:
Big banks, and CEOs like Dimon, have come under fire from Occupy Wall Street and other protesters who are disgruntled about income inequality and feel that big corporations — financial institutions in particular — have undue influence on government. In fact, last month, the protesters in New York targeted Dimon specifically, marching to his apartment and the residences of other wealthy New Yorkers.
Dimon said he’s worked on Wall Street for much of his life and contributed his fair share.
“Most of us wage earners are paying 39.6 percent in taxes and add in another 12 percent in New York state and city taxes and we’re paying 50 percent of our income in taxes,” Dimon said in defense of his fellow Wall Street bankers.
Let me start my budding career as a fact-checker by giving Dimon FOUR Pinocchios! His tax rate is not 39.6%; that was the top rate in the Clinton years. He pays a 35% rate on his earnings above $375,000. It’s not like this is a big secret; it’s been the main national domestic policy of the last decade, the cause of endless fights between the parties that continue to this day.
As Matt Yglesias writes, conservatives love to discourse about the negative impact of higher tax rates on the spending behaviors of the rich. The fact that one of the more educated members, at least on financial matters, of that elite 1% class doesn’t even know what the top marginal tax rate is tends to cut against this theory. In fact, for the vast majority of Americans, they think about their tax rates maybe once a year, around filing time, if they don’t just dump their receipts on their accountant and let them sort it out, which is obviously Dimon’s preferred strategy.
The behavioral economics argument on tax rates, then, is a lot of bunk. The tax code ought to benefit the country by raising the revenue needed to maximize employment and keep inflation in check. It should have nothing to do with coddling the rich, who at this point have so much money that they are completely insulated from even knowing about their own marginal tax rates.
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But does he? His compensation is probably structured so that he pays a much lower rate.
And if poor Jamie were one of the ultra-rich, most of his income would be capital gains
and he would be paying at most 15%. Dimon knows it and that is what really sticks in his craw.
Poor widdle Jamie getting his fee-fees hurt once again by all the mean ol’ poor folks saying nasty things about him and his MOTU buddies.
Where’s the cheese for this whine?
He is subject to,but does not pay, 35% marginal rate on hs adjusted gross income, but not on his income from capital gains, which likely makes up most of his income. If he pays even 25 percent, I’d be shocked. The man has probably never filled out hs own tax forms.
I doubt Mr. Dimon is ignorant about his taxes. He probably just found it convenient to lie.
Poor, poor Jamie
Even with a 50% marginal tax rate on income that would still have left him with a 10 million dollar annual income in 2010.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/08/us-jpmorgan-idUSTRE73681B20110408
And we all know that some of that compensation was not income like the average Joe pulling a $50,000 annual income(who could work for 30 years and still not pull what Jamie received in compensation for ONE YEAR).
I also love how he received his HUGE increase because he was able to pay the loan back. Gee, do you think that might have anything to do with the zero interest window? I’d be shocked if Jamie didn’t repay taxpayer money with the Fed’s wonderful interest free trillions of dollars backdoor program.