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The Updated Biden Tax Plan

This analysis has been updated as part of PWBM's comprehensive analysis of the Biden platform.
Summary: We estimate the budgetary, distributional and economic effects over the 10-year budget window (2021 - 2030) of Presidential Candidate and Former Vice President Joe Biden's updated tax plan. Detailed summaries of each proposal can be found in our analysis of this estimate and our analysis of the previous version of his plan.

Table 1. Conventional and Dynamic Revenue Estimates, Fiscal Years 2021-2030

Billions of Dollars, Change from Current-Law Baseline

Provision 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 Budget window
Implement a Social Security "donut hole" 64 86 90 94 98 104 113 122 129 136 1,035
Eliminate stepped-up basis 10 15 16 18 19 21 23 25 27 30 204
Raise the top rate on ordinary income 20 24 24 25 26 14 10 7 2 1 153
Tax capital gains and dividends at ordinary rates 15 18 19 20 21 16 16 17 18 19 178
Limit itemized deductions 16 21 22 23 24 27 30 32 33 35 263
Limit Section 199A 26 35 38 40 42 16 9 3 1 0 208
Raise the corporate tax rate 57 93 102 106 109 118 125 126 125 127 1,088
Impose a minimum tax on corporate book income 21 17 14 17 20 23 26 28 30 31 227
Raise the tax rate on foreign profits 26 37 39 41 43 25 26 27 28 29 323
Miscellaneous 1 1 0 1 1 10 13 14 14 14 67
Conventional 255 346 364 383 402 374 392 400 408 422 3,745
Dynamic (includes macroeconomic effects) 210 284 299 314 330 307 322 329 335 347 3,077

Table 2: Distribution of Federal Tax Change Under Former Vice President Biden's Tax Plan, 2021


Corporate, individual and payroll taxes
Income group Average tax change Share with a tax increase Percent change in after-tax income Share of tax change Share of federal taxes paid Change in share of federal taxes paid
Bottom quintile $15 30.3% -0.5% 0.3% -0.2% 0.1%
Second quintile $90 93.1% -0.4% 1.1% 0.7% 0.1%
Middle quintile $180 95.8% -0.4% 2.2% 7.6% -0.7%
Fourth quintile $360 95.2% -0.4% 3.8% 15.8% -1.5%
80-90% $665 98.8% -0.5% 2.8% 12.8% -1.2%
90-95% $1,155 98.5% -0.6% 2.3% 10.0% -0.9%
95-99% $4,360 97.4% -1.4% 7.1% 16.5% -1.2%
99-99.9% $72,835 100.0% -8.5% 26.1% 16.4% 1.2%
Top 0.1% $1,304,950 100.0% -17.7% 53.9% 20.1% 4.1%
Individual and payroll tax only
Income group Average tax change Share with a tax increase Percent change in after-tax income Share of tax change Share of federal taxes paid Change in share of federal taxes paid
Bottom quintile $0 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% -0.3% 0.0%
Second quintile $0 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.4% 0.0%
Middle quintile $0 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 7.7% -0.7%
Fourth quintile $0 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 16.3% -1.4%
80-90% $0 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 13.3% -1.2%
90-95% $5 0.3% 0.0% -0.1% 10.2% -0.9%
95-99% $1,365 24.8% -0.4% 3.3% 16.7% -1.2%
99-99.9% $58,410 97.2% -6.8% 31.1% 16.4% 1.3%
Top 0.1% $1,068,660 99.9% -14.5% 65.6% 19.0% 4.1%

Note: “Income” is defined as AGI plus: above-the-line deductions, nontaxable interest income, nontaxable Social Security benefits, nontaxable pensions and annuities, employer-side payroll taxes, and corporate liability. Seventy-five percent of the corporate income tax is assumed to be borne by the owners of capital; the rest is assumed to fall on wages. Federal taxes included are individual income, payroll, and corporate income taxes.

Table 3. Economic Effects of Former Vice President Biden's Tax Plan

Percent Change from Baseline

Year GDP Capital stock Hours worked Average hourly wage
2030 -0.6% -0.7% -0.6% -0.1%
2040 -0.7% -1.3% -0.7% 0.0%
2050 -0.7% -1.2% -0.7% 0.0%

Note: Consistent with empirical evidence, the projections above assume that the U.S. economy is 40 percent open and 60 percent closed. Specifically, 40 percent of new government debt is purchased by foreigners.