President Barack Obama’s 2013 budget plan would raise taxes for 27 percent of U.S. households, far more than the administration estimates, according to a nonpartisan study.
The study released today comes from the Tax Policy Center, a research group in Washington that analyzes proposals from presidential candidates in both parties.
Obama focuses the tax increases in his 2013 budget on corporations and the top 2 percent of individual taxpayers. The result in the center’s study stems from the fact that taxpayers in all income brackets own parts of corporations.
“There are enough corporate tax increases in the president’s plan to have a measurable impact on the distribution,” said Roberton Williams, a senior fellow at the center.
Most of the additional tax burden imposed by Obama’s budget plan would fall upon the highest-earning taxpayers.
Compared with current tax policy, under Obama’s budget proposal 98.4 percent of people earning more than $1 million would see their taxes increase next year by an average of $184,504.
In contrast, 31.6 percent of U.S. households earning between $50,000 and $75,000 a year would see an average tax increase of $92. In that same income group, 16.8 percent of households would have a tax cut averaging $382.
Obama’s budget would raise marginal tax rates to a maximum of 39.6 percent, up from 35 percent. High-income taxpayers would also face higher rates on investment income and limits on deductions. The budget would impose restrictions on multinational corporations’ ability to defer U.S. taxes on income earned outside the country. Oil and gas companies would lose several breaks.
© Copyright 2026 Bloomberg News. All rights reserved.