Obama's budget to target large financial institutions, wealthy

Washington

UNITED States President Barack Obama plans to propose raising US$320 billion over the next 10 years in new taxes targeting wealthy individuals and big financial institutions to pay for new programmes designed to help lower- and middle-income families, senior administration officials said on Saturday.

In his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, Mr Obama will propose raising the capital gains and dividend tax rates to 28 per cent for high earners; imposing a fee on the liabilities of about 100 big financial institutions; and greatly broadening the amount of inherited money subject to taxes.

Mr Obama will also seek to boost private retirement savings by requiring employers without 401(k) plans (a retirement plan for employees) to make it easier for full-time and part-time workers to save in individual retirement accounts, which could assist as many as 30 mill…