Very sad records. In May 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic brought the US economy to a standstill, the unemployment rate skyrocketed to unprecedented proportions in such a short period across the Atlantic, from 4.4% to 14.7%. A level not seen since the 1930s. Mechanically, the number of unemployed receiving unemployment benefits (“unemployment compensation”) that year skyrocketed to 29.9 million, an increase of 585% over 2019. .
Among the beneficiaries of these allowances were more than 19,000 US taxpayers who declared annual gross income of more than one million dollars, Politico reports, citing data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the US tax administration.
mass layoffs
While it is true that the number of American millionaires who received unemployment benefits in 2020 has increased, it is impossible to know the extent of the increase. In fact, the IRS does not give figures for 2019, for one simple reason: its numbers were so low that year that the publication of the data could have allowed the people involved to be identified.
What we do know, however, is that of the more than $405 billion in unemployment benefits paid to Americans in 2020, our 19,000 millionaire beneficiaries received a total of $264.061 million, or nearly $14,000 per taxpayer year on average.
However, nothing abnormal, according to experts interviewed by Politico. Due to the health crisis, companies went bankrupt and “tens of millions of workers were laid off in 2020. A very wide range of people were affected, including people who had very high incomes” and who, having contributed like others, could claim their benefits, says Amy M. Traub, a researcher and unemployment insurance specialist with the National Employment Law Project.
In some cases, these payments are also sent to the spouse of a millionaire who has lost their job. Therefore, he is considered a millionaire in the eyes of the tax authorities, but he is not with respect to his own income.
CARES Act
Finally, the increase in 2020 in the number of American millionaires who have lost their jobs and the amounts paid are also the result of the massive support plans decided by the Trump administration, and in particular the CARES Act, a rescue plan for the economy to more than $2 billion, which extended the duration of unemployment benefits, increased the amounts paid, and relaxed eligibility criteria.
The senator from Iowa, Joni Ernst, was offended by the effects of this plan that allows the richest to benefit even more from unemployment benefits: “We spend (…) to pay millionaires who do not work. No we can afford to subsidize the lifestyle of the coastal elite millionaires,” he said, calling the spending “stupid.
Source: BFM TV
