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Amid a robust debate about taxes, the budget deficit and the national debt, a
wealthy former Google executive wants Washington to raise his taxes. If
Americans want to pay more than they have to by law, how can they go about it?
President Barack Obama, at a town hall-style meeting in Silicon Valley on
Monday, called on a balding man in glasses and a blue shirt near the back.
"I'm unemployed by choice," Doug Edwards, Google's 59th employee, told the
president.
"My question is, would you please raise my taxes? I would like very much to
have the country to continue to invest in things like Pell Grants [an education
programme] and infrastructure and job training programs that made it possible
for me to get to where I am."
The answer
The US Department of Treasury accepts gifts
See the department's gift website
Dozens of other US government agencies and research centres accept donations
for more specific aims
Some states also accept gifts into their coffers
With his comments on Monday Mr Edwards, author of memoir I'm Feeling Lucky
about his six-year tenure at Google, joined billionaire Warren Buffett in a
public call for the US Congress to raise income tax rates on the wealthiest
Americans.
The comments drew fire from conservatives who urged him to cut a cheque to the
US government rather than saddle others with higher tax bills, and praise from
liberals who say current tax policy has contributed to rising income
inequality.
Mr Obama has called for higher taxes on the wealthy, a proposal Republicans
have attacked as a declaration of "class warfare".
Doug Edwards, courtesy of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Mr Edwards urged Mr Obama
to "stay strong" in pushing for tax increases
But while Mr Obama and the Republicans fight it out, Mr Edwards and other
wealthy Americans are already easily able to express their devotion to their
country through higher taxes if they desire.
Since 1843, the US treasury department has accepted what it terms "gifts to the
United States", which go into the US treasury for general budget needs.
Now, a webpage gives Americans instructions and an address to send their
cheques.
If they want some control over how their gifts are used, Americans can give
directly to more than 50 separate government agencies or programmes, from the
National Science Foundation to the National Park Service and the state
department, to an account earmarked to pay down the national debt.
In 2010, Americans contributed $316m directly to the government, with the
largest chunk going to scientific and medical research organisations. It's not
much: Total individual income tax receipts were $899bn, according to the
treasury department.
And if people want to give closer to home, several states accept voluntary tax
contributions.
'Moral preening'
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who ran for president in 2008 and is
now a chat show host on Fox News Channel, established the state's Tax Me More
Fund in 2001 in a mocking swipe at Democratic lawmakers who called for tax
increases to stave off spending cuts.
The fund ultimately raised $2,076.79, says Richard Weiss, director of the
state's Department of Finance and Administration. The last collection was a $3
donation in January 2005.
Graph showing breakdown of donations
"It's not a successful tax programme," Mr Weiss says, but, "it's still alive.
We can always use the money."
Conservatives who provide the political and policy energy behind the Republican
party's anti-tax position derided Mr Edwards and Mr Buffett and encouraged them
to make voluntary contributions rather than offer to pay higher tax rates as if
they represented the spirit of their hyperwealthy peers.
"You can write your cheque today," says Grover Norquist, president of anti-tax
advocacy group Americans for Tax Reform.
He accused Mr Edwards and Mr Buffett, who has repeatedly complained that he and
other mega-rich Americans pay lower tax rates than their secretaries, of "moral
preening".
But some liberal-leaning analysts laud the offer.
"It's great to see," says Chuck Marr, director of federal tax policy at the
Centre for Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington.
"Very wealthy people are stepping up and saying they've been privileged to live
in a great country and they're willing to pay higher taxes."