Template:Billionaire tax rates
Return to top. Section link. See Wikipedia: Wealth inequality in the United States.
The top 10% in 2026 Q2 own 68.9% of U.S. wealth!
| Growth of US wealth inequality. 1989 to 2026. The top 10% own 87% of the stock market in 2026 Q1. |
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| See Wikipedia: Wealth inequality in the United States. See template. See PNG image (for social media). |
A 2021 investigation using leaked IRS documents found more than half of the richest 100 Americans use grantor retained annuity trusts to avoid paying estate taxes when they die. Also, they avoid paying taxes on capital gains with the "Buy, Borrow, Die" technique. [1][2][3] [4][5][6] [7][8][9].
- Buy or earn capital assets like stocks and real estate, and then never sell because assets do not count as income until sold.
- Using capital assets as collateral to borrow spending money at interest rates considerably lower than the tax rate; loans are not taxed as income.
- Holding capital assets until after death, when a "step-up in basis" zeroes out the accumulated gains and allows heirs to not pay any capital gains tax.
The chart below shows the absurdly low tax rates that billionaires pay on ALL their income, including untaxed capital and wealth gains.
| True US federal income tax rates for 4 very rich people if all wealth gains are counted as income. 2014 to 2018. See source. B=Billion. M=Million. |
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| See this template. See Commons PNG image (for social media). |
How this plutocracy of the top 10% is maintained: The electoral college has elected oligarchy-defending Republicans (Bush in 2000 and Trump in 2016) who both lost the popular vote. The minimal billionaire tax rates are maintained by the anti-democratic Presidential veto which can only be overridden by a 2/3rds vote of the House and Senate. Also, the antidemocratic 60% filibuster rule: What is the US Senate filibuster, and what would it take to eliminate it? With a democratic president steep progressive tax rates on ALL property, wealth, and income could be imposed by a simple majority through the nuclear option in the Senate. Or by budget reconciliation bills. The same bills Trump used to give yet more tax breaks to the morbidly rich.