America's billionaires pay lower tax rates than you do, study finds
The wealthiest 400 people in the U.S. pay a tax rate of 24%, lower than the average rate for all other taxpayers, economists find.
You don't become a billionaire by playing by the rules.
You don't become a billionaire by playing by the rules.
Actually you're wrong about that.
These guys do play by the rule: they obey the law to a tee. But... they obey the LETTER of the law, not the spirit. That's why nobody can't stop them and throw them in the slammer for tax evasion.
What you need to be a billionaire is to be psychopathic enough to think you're the only person whose interests matter, and have enough money to pay for equally psychopathic tax lawyers to establish some legal constructs for you that enable you to pay almost zero taxes legally. Once you're rich enough to pay the lawyers, you get exponentially richer.
It's legal, but they're still psychopathic sonsabitches.
I don't think it's "psychopathic" for anyone to work the system to their advantage. On the contrary, it's quite rational & it'd be kinda daft not to: we all should be making the most of the system we're given. If we don't want people doing that, then we shouldn't have a system that lets them. It means we should fix broken rules.
Were there people who didn't know that?
i didn't know they paid taxes
The ones who ignored the Panama Papers
Where are the people who read past the headline into the actual finding?
The interesting part is they were able to determine total effective tax rate that accounts for taxes at all levels of government & for all sources of income & wealth beyond those reported by IRS statistics. They determined economic income (labor + capital income) by combining individual tax returns (income, estate, gift, etc.) & tax returns of businesses they owned. It more clearly shows how they avoid taxes: low individual taxable income relative to economic income (their income is mostly tied up in business ownership), low dividends by C-corporations they own, negative taxable income of passthrough business they own, low corporate taxes, and a recent decline of income & corporate tax rates with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. They also found the effective tax rate for the top wealthiest individuals was consistently less in Europe than the US over the examined period (2005–2020).
Interestingly, the top-end effective rates we obtain in the United States are higher than in Europe. In the Netherlands, Bruil et al. (2025) find an effective tax rate of less than 20% of economic income for the top 0.0001%, roughly the population of Dutch billionaires. Ring, Seim and Zucman (2025) obtain similar numbers in Sweden and Norway. In France, Bach et al. (2023) estimate an effective tax rate of 26% for the top 0.0002% in 2016 (vs. 30% for the top 0.0002% in our series pre-Tax Cuts and Jobs Acts). In Europe the individual income tax paid by billionaires is even lower than in the United States. As shown by Ring et al. (2025), this can be explained by the widespread use of personal wealth-holding companies, which allow ultra high-net-worth individuals in Europe to avoid the individual income tax, a technique heavily penalized in the United States since the 1930s.
Straight from the archives!
No fucking shit, CBS. Nice of you to catch up.
Idiots.
Shithole country well on its way to being a Russia clone.
Or read the paper and notice they found it's worse in Europe.
Interestingly, the top-end effective rates we obtain in the United States are higher than in Europe. In the Netherlands, Bruil et al. (2025) find an effective tax rate of less than 20% of economic income for the top 0.0001%, roughly the population of Dutch billionaires. Ring, Seim and Zucman (2025) obtain similar numbers in Sweden and Norway. In France, Bach et al. (2023) estimate an effective tax rate of 26% for the top 0.0002% in 2016 (vs. 30% for the top 0.0002% in our series pre-Tax Cuts and Jobs Acts). In Europe the individual income tax paid by billionaires is even lower than in the United States. As shown by Ring et al. (2025), this can be explained by the widespread use of personal wealth-holding companies, which allow ultra high-net-worth individuals in Europe to avoid the individual income tax, a technique heavily penalized in the United States since the 1930s.
Unless you're saying European countries are on their way, too? You might have a point.
Pretty much. Most high wealth people's net worth is heavily made up of stocks. You don't pay tax on stock and don't pay tax when the price goes up. But you can use it to leverage a loan. You can leverage a million dollar loan against your stock and pay no tax on your million dollars. Then your stock goes up and you go to the bank and borrow more against the same stock because it's worth more.
Water is wet, more at 11!
Not lower tax rates. Lower taxes period.
Why did I read "...lower tax rates than you do, stupid finds"
Study finds thing studies already found, "someone should do something but they're rigging the system," says foreign alien economist who hates freedom and is French so you know what those guys would be doing if the US hadn't bailed their froggy asses out of WW2 amirite? Anyway clearly a communist, and we respect dissenting views here in the greatest country in the world but also we don't tolerate terrorist hate speech or European haircuts, as outlined in the latest executive order called, "The all good things, freedom and safety act," which identifies communists and other "lizard folk" as being a threat to children therefore we have no choice but to empower the DHS to deputize and arm edgy teenagers to march these hardened criminal, um economics professors, to a rehabilitation center nicknamed "planet death" where they will produce made in america plushies to compete with the threat of Chinese communist labubus that are a threat to democracy and pretty sure is a form of satanic witchcraft
But they use that savings to create jobs! Don't you like the feeling of that warm, golden liquid trickling down your face?
/s in case it wasn't obvious.
If we are going to continue paying taxes, we need a flat tax. No loopholes or anything, everyone pays the same flat tax.
Nah. Fuck that.
The wealthy pay more.
We used to tax the fuck out of the wealthy and surprise surprise, that time period was what is generally considered America's golden age when the middle class was the strongest it's ever been.
Always weird when people idolize that period. Americas golden age was when most of the world’s manufacturing was destroyed by war.
No offense but have you ever taken an economics class? If so, why do you think this is a good idea?
If this was implemented it would reduce billionaires' effective tax rate from ~24% to near 0%. Is that what you want?
