There is no one-size-fits-all solution to the issue of funding necessary services and affordability measures. Yet, Virginia has a lopsided tax system in more ways than one, leading to the middle class being hit harder year after year. Two policies aim at rectifying our tax system and making it more fair for hardworking people: a millionaire’s tax and combined reporting. 

A fair tax on millionaires and billionaires- or “Millionaire’s Tax”- would create a new tax bracket for earned income over $1 million. The bill stipulates that revenue will go towards funding K-12 education, childcare subsidy programs, and the Virginia Housing Trust Fund. This new tax bracket would only apply to a small number of Virginians with earned income above $1 million annually; that’s 0.4% of Virginia’s more than 4 million tax filers.

Combined reporting would close costly tax loopholes for corporations and businesses. Currently, large, multi-state corporations can use accounting maneuvers and exploit weaknesses in state tax structures to reduce their state income tax liability, which strains state budgets. In states without mandatory combined reporting policies, corporations can relatively easily shift profits to other states that tax corporate income at lower rates – or that do not tax corporate profits at all. If Virginia adopted combined reporting, the member corporations doing business here would report the appropriate share of their combined profit on their state tax returns, negating many common tax avoidance strategies.