How did the Biden Harris administration's tax policies affect middle-class Americans in 2023?

Executive summary — Short answer up front. The evidence in the provided analyses shows no singular, enacted Biden‑Harris tax package in 2023 that directly raised statutory federal income‑tax rates for middle‑class households earning under $400,000, while some analyses and partisan statements argue that provisions and enforcement changes effectively raised burdens for some middle‑class taxpayers. The dispute hinges on whether indirect effects, closed loopholes, and certain excise or business‑income provisions count as “tax increases” on the middle class; authoritative budget and tax‑analysis pieces find direct rate hikes absent in 2023, while partisan reviewers and JCT summaries highlight provisions that could raise liabilities for particular middle‑income families ^{[1] [2] [3]}.

1. What critics claim — “Middle‑class taxes went up” and why that charge circulated. Republican and advocacy sources packaged a variety of changes as middle‑class tax hikes: doubling the federal tobacco tax, new taxes on certain small‑business income, and closing deductions and loopholes that they argue disproportionately hit lower and middle‑income families. These critiques present specific provisions as inevitable tax increases for ordinary families, and treat administrative changes and base‑broadening as equivalent to a rate hike. That framing is consistent across partisan op‑eds and committee communications, which emphasize headline impacts and anecdotal examples to show a higher bill for some households ^{[2] [4]}. The critics’ messaging carries a clear political agenda to depict the administration as breaking pledges not to raise taxes on those earning less than $400,000.

2. What independent fact‑checks and tax analysts found — no direct middle‑class rate hikes in 2023. Fact‑checking outlets and nonpartisan tax analysts reviewed enacted measures and concluded that marginal individual tax rates for households under $400,000 were not increased by administration policy in 2023; the Inflation Reduction Act and Biden’s messaging preserved the pledge in letter for individual income‑tax rates. These sources note that the TCJA’s 2017 provisions still governed the 2023 individual rate schedule and that administrations’ proposals (e.g., later 2024 budget ideas) are not retroactive law. Fact‑checks emphasize the difference between speculative indirect macroeconomic effects and concrete statutory tax increases for middle‑class filers ^{[1] [3]}.

3. The Joint Committee on Taxation and technical mechanics — nuance on “burden” versus “rates.” Nonpartisan tax authorities like the Joint Committee on Taxation sometimes show that certain provisions and interactions can increase measured tax burdens for some lower‑income groups in a given year, even when statutory rates remain unchanged. Those technical assessments fuel claims that middle‑class families experienced higher tax burdens in 2023 because of base‑broadening, targeted excise changes, or interaction effects with credits and deductions. These technical increases are real for affected households, but they differ from an across‑the‑board increase in marginal rates and are often sensitive to income definitions, filing circumstances, and the specific provisions modeled ^{[2] [3]}.

4. The broader context — existing tax law and administration proposals that confuse the public picture. The tax landscape in 2023 was dominated by carryover provisions from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017, with many provisions set to expire after 2025, and by policy proposals from the White House that did not become law in 2023. Media and policy commentary sometimes conflated the administration’s budgeting proposals or later 2024 proposals (top‑rate increases, minimum wealth tax ideas) with enacted 2023 policy, creating public confusion about what actually affected middle‑class taxpayers that year. Accurate accounting requires separating enacted law in calendar 2023 from proposed changes and partisan messaging aimed at future elections ^{[3] [5]}.

5. Bottom line assessment and where the debate is likely to go next. The factual core: no enacted, direct increase in statutory federal income‑tax rates for households under $400,000 occurred in 2023, but technical changes and targeted provisions did raise liabilities for some middle‑income taxpayers, and partisan actors amplified those instances into a broader narrative of broken pledges. Readers should treat claims that “Biden raised middle‑class taxes in 2023” as partly true in narrow, technical senses and misleading when framed as a general, across‑the‑board increase. Watch future budget proposals and congressional actions — not administration pledges or partisan press — to determine realized, economy‑wide tax changes ^{[1] [2] [5]}.