Senator Elizabeth Warren’s tax plan is a package of bills built around a new annual tax on the largest personal fortunes, higher taxes on corporate profits and stock buybacks, and a large infusion of money for the IRS to collect what is owed. The centerpiece, the Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act, would levy 2% a year on household net worth above $50 million and 3% on net worth above $1 billion, which sponsors estimate would raise $6.2 trillion over ten years from roughly 260,000 households.1Senator Elizabeth Warren. Warren, Jayapal, Boyle, 45 Lawmakers Renew Push for Wealth Tax on Ultra-Millionaires and Billionaires None of the plan’s major pieces have advanced out of committee in the 119th Congress, but together they define the Democratic left’s position in the fight over the tax code.
What the Wealth Tax Would Do
Warren reintroduced the Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act on March 26, 2026, with Representative Pramila Jayapal, Representative Brendan Boyle, and 45 other co-sponsors across both chambers.2Office of Representative Pramila Jayapal. Jayapal, Warren, Boyle, 45 Lawmakers Renew Push for Wealth Tax on Ultra-Millionaires and Billionaires The tax applies to the top 0.15% of American families, measured by total net worth in a given year rather than by income earned that year. A household with $60 million in assets would owe 2% on the $10 million above the threshold. A household with $2 billion would owe 2% on the slice between $50 million and $1 billion, then 3% on everything above $1 billion.
The bill directs the revenue to universal child care, tuition-free community college, expanded Medicare eligibility down to age 55, a larger Child Tax Credit, universal paid family leave, and new housing construction aimed at lowering rents.1Senator Elizabeth Warren. Warren, Jayapal, Boyle, 45 Lawmakers Renew Push for Wealth Tax on Ultra-Millionaires and Billionaires
Two features are designed to keep the tax from leaking. Anyone who renounces U.S. citizenship with a net worth above $50 million would owe a 40% exit tax on that wealth. And the bill requires a 30% minimum audit rate for taxpayers subject to the wealth tax, backed by what its one-page summary describes as a $100 billion investment in IRS modernization and staffing, plus new tools for valuing hard-to-appraise assets like private businesses, art, and real estate.3Senator Elizabeth Warren. Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act One-Pager
How Much Would It Actually Raise
The $6.2 trillion figure comes from the sponsors. Independent estimates of earlier versions of the same bill have come in lower. The Penn Wharton Budget Model scored the 2021 version at $2.1 trillion to $2.7 trillion over ten years using conventional methods, and $2.0 trillion to $2.3 trillion after accounting for macroeconomic effects such as reduced investment and slower wage growth.4Penn Wharton Budget Model. Conventional Budgetary Effects of Senator Elizabeth Warren’s Wealth Tax Legislation Economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman of UC Berkeley, whose work Warren has drawn on, estimated the 2021 bill would raise $3.03 trillion over ten years assuming a 15% loss to avoidance and evasion.5Senator Elizabeth Warren. Wealth Tax Revenue Estimates by Saez and Zucman
Penn Wharton also projected longer-run effects by 2050: a 1.2% reduction in GDP, a 3.1% reduction in the capital stock, and a 1.2% drop in average hourly wages.4Penn Wharton Budget Model. Conventional Budgetary Effects of Senator Elizabeth Warren’s Wealth Tax Legislation The gap between sponsor and outside estimates matters because much of what Warren proposes to fund with the tax is priced against her higher number.
Would a Federal Wealth Tax Be Constitutional
The constitutional status of a federal wealth tax is unsettled. The Constitution’s Direct Tax Clauses require “direct taxes” to be apportioned among the states by population, which makes them nearly impossible to administer. If a court found the wealth tax to be a direct tax in that sense, it would likely fall.
Supporters, including legal scholars Dawn Johnsen and Walter Dellinger, argue that “direct tax” was understood narrowly at the founding and does not reach a tax on net worth. They cite Knowlton v. Moore (1900), in which the Supreme Court unanimously upheld a progressive inheritance tax as an indirect tax, and argue that the 16th Amendment repudiated the broader definition of direct taxation in Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan & Trust Co. (1895).6Senator Elizabeth Warren. Constitutionality Letters7Indiana University Maurer School of Law. The Constitutionality of a National Wealth Tax Opponents respond that a wealth tax has no triggering transaction the way an income or inheritance tax does, and they point to Eisner v. Macomber (1920), which struck down a tax on unrealized capital gains.8Tax Foundation. Warren Wealth Tax Constitutionality
Many observers expected the Supreme Court’s 2024 decision in Moore v. United States to settle the question. It did not. The Court upheld the Mandatory Repatriation Tax from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, but the majority stressed that the income had been realized by the corporation and expressly declined to address “taxes on holdings, wealth, or net worth” or “taxes on appreciation.”9Supreme Court of the United States. Moore v. United States, No. 22-800 The concurrences and dissents showed the Court is divided on the underlying question. Justice Jackson signaled that unrealized gains might be taxable without apportionment; Justice Thomas, joined by Justice Gorsuch, argued that income must be realized by the taxpayer to be taxed under the 16th Amendment.10Harvard Law Review. Moore v. United States
The Corporate Side of the Plan
Warren has paired the wealth tax with a set of proposals aimed at large corporations.
Real Corporate Profits Tax
The Real Corporate Profits Tax would impose a 7% surtax on the book profits that large C corporations report to shareholders, rather than the often-lower figures they report to the IRS. It would apply to companies with more than $100 million in profits. Introduced as S.2680 in the 117th Congress, it was estimated to raise between $476 billion and $872 billion over ten years, depending on whether macroeconomic effects were included.11Tax Foundation. Elizabeth Warren Corporate Tax Plan
Stock Buyback Accountability Act
On June 11, 2026, Warren joined Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden to introduce the Stock Buyback Accountability Act. The bill would raise the existing excise tax on corporate stock buybacks from 1%, its rate under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, to 4%. It would also close a loophole that lets companies reduce their buyback tax bill by issuing stock options to executives. Sponsors cited S&P 500 buybacks exceeding $1 trillion in 2025.12Senate Democrats. Schumer, Wyden, and Warren Unveil Stock Buyback Accountability Act
The IRS Enforcement Leg
Warren has described her broader approach as “three legs on a stool”: close corporate loopholes, tax wealth, and fund the agency that collects the taxes.13Politico. Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Her IRS Funding Plan The third leg is the Stop CHEATERS Act, which she co-introduced on April 15, 2026, with Senators Angus King, Tim Kaine, and Sheldon Whitehouse.
The bill would provide more than $83 billion in mandatory IRS funding through fiscal year 2031: $45.6 billion for enforcement targeting high-income individuals and large corporations, $25.4 billion for fraud-detection technology, $9.6 billion for taxpayer services, and $3.1 billion for systems modernization. The Yale Budget Lab estimated the bill would raise roughly $998 billion in net revenue over its first decade, a return of about 13 to 1 on the investment.14Senator Elizabeth Warren. Warren, King, Kaine, Whitehouse Lead 25 Senators in Introducing Bill to Fund the IRS15Yale Budget Lab. Stop CHEATERS Act Analysis
The enforcement piece is a response to a known blind spot. IRS random audit data from 2006 to 2013 found that less than 1% of income appeared to be under-reported among the top 0.01% of earners, not because the wealthy were honest but because the evasion methods used, including offshore accounts, shell companies, and complex pass-through structures, were largely invisible to standard random audits. Specialized operational audits recommended $967 million in additional annual taxes from that same top 0.01% group.16Internal Revenue Service. Tax Evasion at the Top of the Income Distribution
Where the 2017 Tax Cuts Fit In
The most immediate tax debate of the 119th Congress is the expiration of provisions in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Warren has called the original law a “scam of giant proportions” and said extending its provisions would cost roughly $4.5 trillion over ten years.17Bond Buyer. Elizabeth Warren Slams Trump Tax Plan as Scam She has argued Democrats should be willing to let the entire law expire rather than agree to an extension that primarily benefits the wealthy, and has used the expiration to push for a 28% corporate tax rate and a 25% minimum tax on individuals with assets over $100 million.18Senator Elizabeth Warren. Warren Sets Up Tax Fight, Calls for a Tax Code That Reflects American Values
What Has Passed and What Has Not
None of the major bills that make up Warren’s tax plan have moved out of committee in the current Congress. The wealth tax has been reintroduced in each Congress since 2021 with a growing list of co-sponsors, and Warren has said the 2026 coalition of 45 lawmakers is the largest yet. The corporate tax and buyback bills, and the Stop CHEATERS Act, sit in the same posture: introduced, referred, and awaiting a floor path that a closely divided Senate has not offered. The plan operates less as pending law than as a framework the Democratic Party has been assembling in case the political map shifts.