Overview

• An NBER paper by Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman finds the richest 400 Americans paid about 24% on 2018–2020 economic income versus roughly 30% for other taxpayers.
• The effective rate for the ultra-wealthy fell after the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, dropping from around 30% before 2018 to about 24% in the following years.
• Corporate taxes account for roughly 9 percentage points of the top group's 23.8% total effective rate, while individual income taxes equal about 11% of economic income.
• High earners who primarily take home wages face much higher effective rates near 45%, reflecting lower statutory rates on capital gains and corporate profits than on labor income.
• A July 4 law raises the estate-tax exemption to $15 million per person and extends breaks benefiting top earners as the Forbes 400's share of U.S. wealth reaches about 4.1%.