Senior Democrats float 2% US tax on stock buybacks to fund $3.5-trn budget

The plan comes as Democratic lawmakers assemble a raft of tax measures to help pay for a $3.5 trillion budget bill that contains bulk of President Joe Biden's longer-term economic agenda

Two senior Democratic senators proposed a 2% tax on corporate stock buybacks in an effort to boost investment and reduce what they termed as tax avoidance.

The plan, released by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden of Oregon and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown of Ohio, comes as Democratic lawmakers assemble a raft of tax measures to help pay for a $3.5 trillion budget bill that contains the bulk of President Joe Biden’s longer-term economic agenda.

“Rather than investing in their workers, mega-corporations used the windfall from Republicans’ 2017 tax cuts to juice their stock prices and reward their wealthiest investors