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What percentage of the New York City Taxes are paid by billionaires?
Executive Summary
New York City’s tax burden is heavily concentrated among very high earners, but no provided source gives a definitive percentage of New York City taxes paid specifically by billionaires; available data instead documents that millionaires and the top one percent pay roughly 40–45% of personal income tax revenue in recent years. The studies and news pieces cited emphasize that a tiny share of filers—well under 2%—account for roughly two-fifths to nearly half of personal income tax receipts, while proposals to increase rates on millionaires or high earners are framed as targeting that concentrated base [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. Why the question about billionaires’ share is harder than it sounds — and what the sources actually report
The sources repeatedly show a pattern: tax contributions concentrate among high earners, but they stop short of isolating billionaires as a separate category with a precise share of New York City taxes. Multiple state and city analyses report that millionaires and filers with incomes above $900,000 pay a disproportionate share—figures cited include 41% of personal income taxes in 2023 for millionaires and 44.5% in 2021 for those earning over $1 million [1] [2]. Policy and media pieces reiterate that the top 1% or top decile account for over 40% of income-tax receipts in various years, but none of the supplied documents breaks out the subset of billionaires as a discrete percentage of total city or state tax revenue [4] [3]. The difference between “millionaires” and “billionaires” matters because billionaire wealth often sits in capital gains, unrealized assets, and pass-through entities that are taxed differently or recorded on different returns.
2. What the data say about millionaires and the top 1% — the closest proxy we have for billionaires’ effect
State and city tax reports and reporting consistently show that fewer than 2% of taxpayers account for roughly 40–45% of personal income tax collections. For example, a 2021 figure shows people earning over $1 million made up 1.6% of filers and paid 44.5% of the state’s personal income tax that year [2]. Separate 2023 reporting places millionaires at under 1% of filers but responsible for 41% of personal income taxes [1]. Civic research organizations and news analyses for 2025 echo that the top 1% (roughly filers over $900,000) pay about 40% of municipal income tax, establishing a consistent cross-year pattern of revenue concentration even if the exact composition of that top-tier (how many are billionaires versus millionaires) remains unspecified [5] [4].
3. Policy debate and reporting — taxing the wealthy without isolating billionaires
Recent policy proposals and reporting focus on taxing “millionaires” or the “top earners,” not specifically estimating what billionaires pay. Coverage of mayoral proposals in late 2025 discusses a proposed 2% increase on incomes above $1 million to raise an estimated $4 billion, framing the measure as targeting the concentrated revenue base among very high earners [6] [7]. Journalistic pieces examine whether higher taxes would drive migration of wealthy residents, noting New York’s persistent appeal to rich individuals despite high tax rates [8]. The policy conversation therefore operates on the documented fact that a small group pays large shares and on modeled revenue outcomes, rather than on a clean statistic isolating billionaires’ exact share of city or state taxes.
4. Conflicting emphases and what each source omits that matters for the billionaire question
The materials emphasize different slices of the wealthy population: official tax office pages and tax-day reporting highlight millionaires and capital gains concentration [9] [1], investigative pieces stress avoidance strategies and the skew of tax burdens [2], while civic and media analyses quantify the top 1%’s contribution to municipal revenues [5] [4]. None supplies microdata or a published tabulation of tax receipts attributable to individuals classified as billionaires; this omission matters because billionaires’ incomes often derive from unrealized asset appreciation, trusts, and corporate structures that are taxed differently or intermittently. That gap means any headline claiming “billionaires pay X% of NYC taxes” would be an extrapolation beyond the cited evidence.
5. Bottom line: what can be stated with confidence and what remains unknown
It is accurate to state that a very small share of New York taxpayers—millionaires and the top 1%—pay roughly 40–45% of personal income taxes, based on 2021–2023 reported figures and 2025 analyses [1] [2] [4]. It is not supported by the provided sources to assert a precise percentage for “billionaires” alone; the data do not disaggregate billionaires from millionaires or the broader top 1% in published totals [9] [3]. For a definitive billionaire-specific share, tax authorities or detailed anonymized microdata studies that separate filers by net worth categories would be required; absent that, the most defensible statement is that billionaires are part of the tiny cohort of very high earners that together pay a large fraction of income-tax revenue, but their precise share is not established in these sources [6] [5].