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California Billionaires: Wealth, Taxes, and Wealth Tax Revenue Estimates

In: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 41

Author

Listed:
  • Jasper Boll
  • Emmanuel Saez
  • Gabriel Zucman

Abstract

This paper documents the wealth of California’s billionaires and the taxes they pay. California billionaires’ wealth has reached $2.3 trillion by mid-2026, as large as all the annual income reported on income tax returns of all Californians. It has grown 144% from 2023 to 2025, fueled by the AI boom. Over the longer run, the real wealth of California’s billionaire class—the top 0.001% richest households—has been multiplied by 25 from 1982 to 2026, while average real family income in California has only doubled. California billionaires pay about 0.2% of their wealth each year in California income tax ($3.2 billion/year), representing 2.4% of total California income tax revenue on average over 2023-2025. Total California income tax paid by billionaires sums up to 1.6% of their wealth gains over the period 2019-2025. Using Securities and Exchange Commission data from Alphabet, Meta, Oracle, and Nvidia since 2004, we estimate the trajectory of wealth, income, and taxes paid by the top 4 California billionaires—Page, Brin, Zuckerberg, Ellison (through 2020), and Huang (since 2021)—focusing on their business wealth. This group alone holds nearly $1 trillion in business wealth, about 40% of total California billionaire wealth. For this group, wealth growth (+322% over 2023-2025) and low taxation (0.04% of wealth in annual California income tax) are more pronounced. The proposed one-off California billionaire tax of 5%, payable over 5 years, is both small relative to California billionaires’ wealth gains and large relative to the taxes they currently pay. We estimate that it could raise about $100 billion, with comparatively minor impacts on income tax revenue. Using empirical estimates of mobility responses to wealth taxation, we find that an annual wealth tax on California billionaires could raise substantial additional revenue even after accounting for income tax losses due to mobility.
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Suggested Citation

  • Jasper Boll & Emmanuel Saez & Gabriel Zucman, 2026. "California Billionaires: Wealth, Taxes, and Wealth Tax Revenue Estimates," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 41, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberch:15503
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    JEL classification:

    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General

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