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President Trump’s Proposed Capital Gains and Dividend Tax Cut

Summary: PWBM estimates that reducing the top preferential rates on capital gains and dividends from 20 percent to 15 percent will cost $98.6 billion dollars over the ten year budget window. This tax cut will only benefit tax units in the top 5 percent of the income distribution, with 75 percent of the benefit accruing to those in the top 0.1 percent of the income distribution. Please refer to our analysis of the estimate for more information.

Table 1. Conventional Revenue Estimate, Fiscal Years 2021 - 2030

Billions of Dollars, Change from Current-Law Baseline

2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 Window Total
-7.5 -9.5 -9.7 -10 -10.4 -9.3 -9.7 -10.3 -10.8 -11.4 -98.6

Table 2. Distribution of Federal Tax Change, Calendar Year 2021

Including corporate income tax burden
Income Group Average Tax Change Share With A Tax Cut Average Tax Cut for Those with a Tax Change Percent Change In After Tax Income Share Of Tax Change Share Of Federal Taxes Paid
Before Tax Cut After Tax Cut
Bottom quintile $0 0% $0 0% 0% 0.1% 0.1%
Second quintile $0 0% $0 0% 0% 3.0% 3.0%
Middle quintile $0 0% $0 0% 0% 10.5% 10.6%
Fourth quintile $0 0% $0 0% 0% 18.9% 19.1%
80-90% $0 0% $0 0% 0% 14.7% 14.8%
90-95% $0 0% $0 0% 0% 10.9% 11.0%
95-99% -$115 8% -$1,455 0% 2% 16.3% 16.4%
99-99.9% -$6,625 76% -$8,675 1% 23% 12.7% 12.6%
Top 0.1% -$191,550 91% -$211,700 3% 75% 12.8% 12.2%