随着财富税获得关注，沃伦提出对超级富豪征税

As wealth taxes gain traction, Warren proposes levy on the ultra-rich

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Aimee Picchi

Aimee Picchi Associate Managing Editor, MoneyWatch

Aimee Picchi is the associate managing editor for CBS MoneyWatch, where she covers business and personal finance. She previously worked at Bloomberg News and has written for national news outlets including USA Today and Consumer Reports.

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Aimee Picchi

Updated on: March 26, 2026 / 7:28 AM EDT / CBS News

Aswealth taxes gain traction around the U.S., Sen. Elizabeth Warren is introducing a new bill that the Massachusetts Democrat said would raise trillions in federal revenue by placing new levies on people worth over $50 million.

The bill, called the Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act of 2026, would impose an annual 2% tax on the net worth of households and trusts over $50 million, and an additional 1% tax on the wealth of billionaires. To deter the ultra-rich from leaving the U.S. to avoid the new tax, the bill also proposes a 40% “exit tax” on anyone worth more than $50 million who renounces their American citizenship.

The bill is similar to one that Warren introducedin 2021. Since then, the fortunes of America’s wealthiest families have soared, while millions of low- and middle-income families continue to face an affordability crunch.

Warren’s bill would raise $6.2 trillion over the next decade, or more than double the amount that was forecast when Warren proposed her 2021 wealth tax, according to a new analysis by University of California, Berkeley, economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, who are renowned for their work on economic inequality.

The higher estimate is due to the rising wealth of the country’s richest families. As of September, the nation’s 905 billionaires were worth a combined $7.8 trillion, an increase of more than 25% from a year earlier,according to the progressive Institute for Policy Studies.

“While multi-millionaires and billionaires are getting richer and richer, families are getting squeezed by a rigged economy,” Warren said in a statement to CBS News. “My bill is about basic fairness and making the ultra-wealthy pay their fair share. It’s time for the government to stop listening to the richest of the rich and start working for working people.”

The bill has 10 Democratic co-sponsors in the Senate, including Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland; in the House, Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington is the lead sponsor, with Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania as co-lead, backed by 39 Democratic co-sponsors.

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“We live in the richest country in the world, but that wealth is incredibly concentrated in a tiny group of people,” Jayapal said in a statement. The tax would provide “trillions of dollars in health care, schools, clean energy, housing and more to improve lives in communities across America.”

Wealth taxes across the U.S.

While the legislation is unlikely to pass amid the partisan divide in Congress, it comes as some U.S. states have succeeded in advancing new taxes on the rich. Massachusetts, for instance, passed a law in 2023 that applies a 4% tax to people earning over $1 million, while California voters may get a chance to consider abillionaire tax later this year.

Washington state also recently passed a millionaires’ tax, while New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani wants to add a 2% tax on residents who earn over $1 million.

Almost 60% of respondents to a 2025 poll by the Pew Research Center said tax rates should be higher on households with more than $400,000 in income.

Despite such support, the U.S. tax system has generally gone in the other direction, researchers have found. People on Forbes’ list of the 400 richest Americanspaid a lower effective tax rate than all other U.S. taxpayers, Saez and Zucman found in a 2025 research paper.

“A secretary shouldn’t pay a higher tax rate than the CEO. The current tax code is rigged against working people and the middle class,” Rep. Boyle of Pennsylvania, a co-sponsor of the House wealth tax bill, said in a statement to CBS News.

What $6.2 trillion could pay for

The money raised by Warren’s wealth tax could pay for a host of social services, including affordable childcare, universal paid family leave and tuition-free community college, her office said.

It would also cover lowering the Medicare eligibility age to 55, down from the current 65, according to Warren. Health care costs are often a financial issue for older workers who lose their jobs but who haven’t yet reached the age to qualify for Medicare.

Would the ultra-wealthy flee the U.S.?

One longstanding debate over wealth taxes is whether higher rates would spur an exodus of affluent Americans moving to lower-tax states or countries. Under this view, multimillionaires and billionaires could easily afford to relocate to more favorable tax jurisdictions, depriving governments of revenue.

But some research has found that millionaires actually are less likely to move than people lower down the income ladder. One analysis of tax data by Stanford University researchers found that, of the 500,000 households with at least $1 million in income, only 2.4% migrated to another state. That compared with 2.9% for the general population.

About 260,000 U.S. households would be subject to Warren’s wealth tax, Saez and Zucman estimated in their analysis of the new bill. Strong federal enforcement through audits and information reporting would likely limit tax evasion and avoidance by the richest households, the economists concluded.

Edited by Alain Sherter

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