London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Aug 17, 2026

Can the super-rich solve America's budget problem?

Can the super-rich solve America's budget problem?

A nonagenarian, a father of seven and a high-profile divorcee are among the Americans who would face a new minimum tax under a proposal in US President Joe Biden's budget plan.

The proposal aims to capture more of the wealth created by the soaring stock market of the last few years.

It targets the roughly 20,000 taxpayers in the US worth more than $100m (£76m).

Investor Warren Buffett, Tesla boss Elon Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos would be among those affected.

Under the proposal, America's 0.01% richest would face a minimum 20% tax on income. Crucially, it changes rules on calculating income to include gains from stocks, even if they were not sold by the investor being taxed.

"This approach means that the very wealthiest Americans pay taxes as they go, just like everyone else, and eliminates the inefficient sheltering of income for decades or generations," the White House said.

The idea is the latest in a long list of efforts to raise taxes on the super-rich and faces long odds in Washington - not to mention opposition among the class it proposes to target.

There are about 20,600 people worth more than $100m in the US, according to estimates by the Boston Consulting Group.

The White House said more than half the $360bn raised from the measure over 10 years would come from the country's roughly 700 billionaires.

"Eventually they run out of other people's money and then they come for you," Tesla boss and world's richest man Elon Musk wrote on Twitter last year about a similar proposal.

Under Mr Biden's proposal, Mr Musk - a father of seven who boasts a net worth of more than $280bn - would have to pay $50bn more in taxes over 10 years than under the current system, according to analysis by Gabriel Zucman, an economist at the University of California-Berkeley.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos would face an extra $35bn bill, while Warren Buffett would be on the hook for $26bn.

"This is big," Prof Zucman, who has studied billionaire wealth and helped design a wealth tax proposal for left-wing Senator Elizabeth Warren, wrote on Twitter.

Mr Biden's budget also calls for raising the income tax rate on households earning over $400,000 from 37% to 39.6% and increasing the tax on companies to 28%, partially reversing cuts made under the Trump administration.

He would also make other reforms to the system for taxing the gains in value from stocks and property, which would apply beyond the richest Americans.

Together the reforms and others in the budget would help reduce the deficit by $1tn over the next decade, according to the White House.

For the 2022 financial year, the annual deficit is projected at more than $1.2tn. Overall debt passed $30tn last month.

Mr Biden has long called for many of the tax changes in this year's budget to little avail.

In Congress, other proposals to raise taxes on the wealthy have met with little success.

Fellow Democrat Joe Manchin, of West Virginia - one of the key of members of Mr Biden's party who has blocked his wider agenda - last year said that a similar proposal from Senator Ron Wyden was too complicated and he didn't "like the connotation that we're targeting different people".

Other Democrats have expressed concerns about other similar proposals' workability and ability to withstand legal challenge.

In a briefing for reporters on Monday, Treasury officials said the goal was to advance the discussions in Washington about how to ensure the rich paid their fair share.

America's 400 richest families have more wealth than all 10 million of the country's black families combined, according to a 2020 analysis by the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Sarah Ferguson Reportedly Retreats to Late Ex-Boyfriend's Swiss Chalet
Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez Sign Prenup Protecting Their Separate Fortunes
Thieves Steal Antonello da Messina Renaissance Masterpieces From Sicilian Museum
Better.com Founder Who Fired 900 Employees on Zoom Is Ousted as CEO
Italian Speed Camera Issues Nearly 32,000 Fines in 10 Weeks, Worth More Than €3 Million
AI Manager at San Francisco Store Recommends Firing Human Employee
Google Launches Pixel 11 With Gemini AI at the Center of Its Hardware Strategy
Campaigners Press Government to Strengthen Rights for Four Million Gig Workers
Government Considers Higher Private Rents to Spread Asylum Accommodation Across UK
UK Moves to Protect Historic Pubs From Conversion Into Housing and Offices
Nigel Farage Wins Clacton By-Election to Return to House of Commons
British Manufacturers Report Rising Cybersecurity Threats Across Industrial Supply Chains
Royal Navy Increases Monitoring of Russian Ships in UK Waters by 25 Percent
England Adds More Than 350 Medical Training Posts to Strengthen NHS Capacity
NHS Waiting Lists Over 52 Weeks Rise by More Than 11,000 Patients
Brent Crude Near $88 Raises Fresh UK Energy Cost Concerns
UK Treasury Warns Prolonged Strait of Hormuz Disruption Could Cut 2027 Growth to 0.3 Percent
UK Economy Grows 0.4 Percent in Second Quarter as Energy and Inflation Risks Persist
UK Heatwave Triggers Emergency Alert as Government Unveils £65 Million Farm Support Package
Reform UK Unveils Plan to Cut Welfare Spending by More Than £50 Billion a Year
Prime Minister Andy Burnham Praised Extinction Rebellion for Doing a 'Great Service'
UK Wildfire Phone Alert Triggers Backlash as Users Switch Off Emergency Warnings
Heathrow Roads Reopen After Burst Water Main Floods Access to Terminals 2 and 3
Former NBA Players Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White Say They Will Enter 2027 WNBA Draft
Former Cambridge Professor Jason Arday Found Dead Days After Resigning Amid Plagiarism Row
US Appeals Court Rules AI Agent's Website Actions Are Legally Attributed to the User
France's Constitutional Council Blocks Social Media Ban for Children Under 15
Liechtenstein Changes Royal Succession Rules to Allow Women to Inherit the Throne
Women Allege Rape and Sexual Abuse at British Army College for Teenage Recruits
Minnesota: Two independent investigators posed as Muslims (one wearing a burqa) and showed how they could vote in elections without identification.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham Takes Regional Tour to Highlight Local Infrastructure and Environmental Problems
Nigel Farage Wins Clacton By-Election to Return to the House of Commons
Bank of England Warns Rising Inflation Could Squeeze UK Household Incomes
UK Government Announces £65 Million Aid Package for Farmers Hit by Severe Drought
UK Economy Grows 0.4% in Second Quarter Despite Energy Market Pressures
UK Issues Emergency Alert as Severe Wildfires Spread Across England and Wales
UK and Finland Discuss European Defence and Continued Support for Ukraine
Nigel Farage Wins Clacton By-Election to Return to the House of Commons
UK Government Deploys Military to Help Fight Wildfires and Bans Disposable Barbecues
UK Records Hottest Day of the Year as Fifth Summer Heatwave Peaks in Southern England
UK Condemns Houthi Actions and Warns of Red Sea Threat to Global Trade
UK and Solomon Islands Open Wildlife Photography Exhibition in Honiara
UK Small Businesses Face Continued Cash Flow and Tax Pressures
Greatham Marsh Restoration Restores Tidal Wetland in Hartlepool After More Than 200 Years
UK Health Regulator Urges University Students to Check Meningitis and Measles Vaccination Status
Mining Remediation Authority Completes Major Ground Stabilization Works in Scottish Community
UK Food Crime Investigators Seize 33 Tonnes of Illegal Food in Multi-Agency Operation
Technical Qualification Uptake Hits Record High as Advanced Mathematics Results Improve
UK Summer Temperatures on Course to Challenge Long-Standing Records, Met Office Says
UK Farmers Bring Forward Cereal Harvests as Drought Threatens Yields
×