Should Billionaires Pay More Tax Experts Weigh In
The Growing Divide
In America's current economic landscape, the wealth of billionaires significantly overshadows the incomes of most citizens. The country's 902 billionaires now command a staggering $16.1 trillion, a sum exceeding the GDP of every nation except for China, as highlighted in a Fortune report. This vast concentration of wealth has sparked criticism of a tax system that often allows the wealthiest individuals to pay a lower percentage in taxes than many professionals like teachers and nurses.
This raises a compelling question: what would happen if billionaires were taxed at the same effective rate as the upper-middle class? We explored predictions from ChatGPT and sought the perspective of certified public accountant (CPA) Brian Kofford to understand the feasibility and economic reality of such a policy.
Calculating the Potential Revenue
According to ChatGPT's calculations, if the nearly one thousand billionaires in the U.S. paid a 20% tax rate—similar to many upper-middle-class earners—the government could see an increase of "hundreds of billions in annual revenue," possibly reaching up to $200 billion per year. This projection finds support from other sources; an Oxfam estimate suggests that a modest 3% wealth tax on just the ten wealthiest individuals could generate $52 billion annually. These numbers are particularly persuasive as policymakers debate funding for major initiatives like climate action and education reform.
However, CPA Brian Kofford advises caution. “It sounds nice on paper, but reality is messier," he stated. "Billionaires don’t earn most of their wealth as wages. If the income isn’t realized, the IRS won’t see those ‘hundreds of billions’ people imagine.”
How Billionaires Pay Lower Taxes
The tax disparity arises from how billionaires generate and report their wealth. As ChatGPT noted, “They grow their wealth through investments, stocks, real estate and businesses, which are often taxed at much lower rates.” A critical factor is unrealized gains—the increase in the value of investments that have not been sold. This growth in wealth remains untaxed.
Data from Americans for Tax Fairness reveals that the top 400 U.S. billionaire families paid an average effective tax rate of only 8.2% between 2010 and 2018. A groundbreaking 2021 ProPublica report found that some paid a "true" tax rate as low as 3.4%.
Kofford elaborated on this difference: “W-2 workers earn taxable cash every two weeks. Billionaires live off stock, real estate and borrowing against assets, most of which isn’t taxed until sold.” He emphasized that closing these gaps would require a fundamental and politically challenging redefinition of what the tax code considers income.
Addressing Wealth Inequality
Could a new billionaire tax create a more level economic playing field? ChatGPT suggests it could, arguing that the additional revenue could fund programs like universal pre-K, Medicare expansion, and climate investments. The AI also posited that such a policy “could increase trust in the tax system, showing that the wealthiest aren’t playing by a different set of rules.” Even so, the top 1% would still control an immense portion of global wealth, estimated by Oxfam to be 43% of the world's assets.
Kofford, however, is not convinced that tax hikes alone can solve inequality. “Billionaires didn’t just save harder, they built scalable businesses and assets that compound,” he explained. “Education, entrepreneurship access and smarter financial literacy for the middle class play a bigger role than simply raising someone else’s rate.”
Practical Obstacles to Implementation
Taxing billionaires more heavily presents significant logistical hurdles. ChatGPT pointed out that billionaire wealth is often “tied up in things like stocks they don’t sell, so taxing that would require big changes to how the tax code works.” Proposals to tax unrealized gains could compel billionaires to sell off assets, potentially causing stock market volatility or leading them to take on massive debt.
“Imagine trying to send the IRS a check for stock you own but haven’t sold. Illiquid wealth is tricky,” Kofford noted. This risk is not merely theoretical; it could destabilize companies with major billionaire stakeholders, which in turn could affect jobs and pension funds.
Loopholes and a Path to Reform
The current U.S. tax code is filled with loopholes that benefit the ultra-wealthy. For example, billionaires can borrow against their appreciating assets without triggering a tax event and only pay taxes when they choose to sell. In some cases, these gains can even be passed to heirs tax-free.
While the idea of a “billionaire minimum tax” is often discussed, Kofford sees it as the most viable approach, as it “ensures billionaires can’t legally reduce their effective rate to almost nothing.” In contrast, he described the concept of taxing unrealized gains as something that “sounds fair, but in practice it’s a logistical nightmare.”
