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Do Billionaires Pay Taxes?

Author

Listed:
  • Laurent Bach
  • Antoine Bozio
  • Arthur Guillouzouic
  • Clément Malgouyres

Abstract

We link French households' tax records to the corporations they control, and build a payout-policy-neutral income measure, with corresponding tax burdens including those of "billionaires": the top 0.0002%. Defined as such, income is more concentrated than taxable income, it better predicts rich-list membership, and persists more among billionaires. Personal taxes remain progressive until the top 0.1%, but eventually decline to 2% of income. Corporate taxes are an imperfect progressive backstop, as total tax rates fall from 45% at the 0.1% threshold to 25% for billionaires. Among these, the tax burden is global and tax-efficient pyramidal control over businesses is ubiquitous.

Suggested Citation

  • Laurent Bach & Antoine Bozio & Arthur Guillouzouic & Clément Malgouyres, 2025. "Do Billionaires Pay Taxes?," RFBerlin Discussion Paper Series 2570, ROCKWOOL Foundation Berlin (RFBerlin).
    • Handle: RePEc:crm:wpaper:2570
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    JEL classification:

    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies

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