Americans for Tax Fairness

The collective fortune of America’s 806 billionaires hit a record $5.8 trillion, according to figures collected on April 1, 2024, by Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) for its latest report on billionaire wealth growth based on Forbes data. Billionaire wealth has nearly doubled—up $2.9 trillion—since enactment in late 2017 of the Trump-GOP tax law. Under current rules, none of that nearly $3 trillion in wealth gain–the main form of income for the ultra-wealthy–may ever be taxed.

Washington is now poised for a fight as key provisions of the Trump law are set to expire in 2025. That GOP overhaul of the tax code mostly benefited the wealthy, added an estimated $2 trillion to the nation’s debt, and included temporary provisions that Republicans now want to permanently extend at a further estimated cost of almost $4 trillion. America’s more than 800 billionaires now own over 50% more wealth than does the entire bottom half of U.S. society, or roughly 65 million households ($5.8 trillion versus $3.7 trillion). Under the current tax code, however, these staggering wealth gains are unlikely to ever be taxed.