John,
As 2025 comes to a close, one fact stands out above all others: billionaire wealth continues to grow at staggering levels while much of it escapes federal income tax entirely. That imbalance starves public investment and sustains the myth that our country cannot afford healthcare, housing, child care, and retirement security for millions of families.
Senator Ron Wyden’s Billionaires Income Tax offers one of the clearest solutions to taxing billionaires while ensuring we invest in working people and our future. It would apply only to the very wealthiest households and ensure that income from wealth is finally treated like income from work. Independent estimates show it could raise roughly $500 billion over a decade, all without raising taxes on working families or the middle class.
Americans for Tax Fairness has spent years building the case for reforms like this. We have published the research, organized national coalitions, and pushed back against the well-funded effort to preserve a tax code that favors those at the very top. That work has helped make the scandal of tax-free billionaire wealth impossible for Congress to ignore.
But the opposition is not slowing down. Billionaire-backed lobbyists are pressing lawmakers to weaken enforcement, carve out new exemptions, and protect the same loopholes that created this crisis in the first place. Countering that influence takes sustained organizing, credible research, and public pressure.
And it takes working alongside our champions in Congress, like Sen. Ron Wyden.
Please read Sen. Wyden’s email below, then make an end-of-year, tax deductible donation of $5 or more to Americans for Tax Fairness to help us continue exposing untaxed billionaire wealth gains and pressing Congress to act.
Over the past several years, billionaire wealth has climbed from roughly $2.9 trillion to more than $8 trillion. Much of that growth has never been taxed because the richest households can borrow against their assets, live off that borrowed cash, and delay paying income tax indefinitely. Workers do not get that choice. They pay taxes every pay period, without exception.
Your support strengthens the national effort to demand a tax code that reflects basic fairness. It helps ensure that debates about affordability are grounded in facts, not false scarcity. And it supports a movement that is determined to make sure the wealthiest households finally contribute in a way that reflects the enormous gains they have enjoyed.
We must restore balance and credibility to a tax system that currently asks more of workers than it does of billionaires. With your help, we can keep pushing until that changes.
Please make an end-of-year donation today to help Americans for Tax Fairness sustain the research, organizing, and public pressure needed to finally hold the wealthiest households accountable.
If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your secure donation will go through immediately:
Thank you for standing with us,
David Kass
Executive Director
Americans for Tax Fairness
-- Sen. Wyden's email --
John,
As we close out 2025, the wealth of America’s billionaires has surged to unprecedented levels due to tax cuts and the loopholes that let those fortunes grow virtually tax free. A nurse in Oregon pays taxes on every paycheck. A billionaire can gain hundreds of millions of dollars in a year and pay nothing on those gains.
Billionaire wealth rose from roughly $2.9 trillion in 2017 to more than $8 trillion today. The majority of that income has never been taxed. This is because instead of selling their assets, the richest households borrow against their rising fortunes, spend freely, and avoid reporting taxable income for long stretches of time. Workers have no such option. They pay taxes continuously, which makes the current system both unfair and corrosive to our democracy.
My Billionaires Income Tax fixes this. It applies only to households worth more than $1 billion or earning more than $100 million for three years in a row. It taxes annual gains on tradable assets each year and applies a charge on gains from non-tradable assets when they are sold. Independent estimates show it can raise roughly $500 billion over a decade while raising taxes only on the tiniest fraction of the nation’s wealthiest households. It ensures that income from wealth is finally taxed like income from work.
Americans for Tax Fairness has been one of the most persistent voices supporting this fight against untaxed billionaire income. This year, they brought national attention to the issue, organized over a hundred public interest groups to demand action, and made it clear to Congress that no democracy can survive a system that lets the very richest operate under a separate set of rules.
We need people-power to fight back. Will you make an end-of-year donation of $5 or more to Americans for Tax Fairness so we can break the cycle of tax-free billionaire wealth gains?
The work Americans for Tax Fairness does matters to every community that has been told our country cannot afford to invest in healthcare, housing, child care, or basic infrastructure while billionaire fortunes explode untouched.
We can create a tax system built on fairness, not favoritism. We can end the era in which the richest households decide for themselves whether they will contribute. And we can send a clear signal that democracy does not belong to billionaires. It belongs to the American people.
The lobbyists for the billionaires are already flooding Capitol Hill. They want new loopholes. They want relief from scrutiny. They want a tax code that continues to benefit those at the very top.
Your support strengthens the national coalition that is pressing Congress to adopt a fair tax code, invest in working families, and make the ultra wealthy contribute in a way that reflects the enormous gains they have enjoyed. This is a chance to secure hundreds of billions of dollars for public needs without raising taxes on working people or the middle class.
Support Americans for Tax Fairness today so we can continue exposing untaxed billionaire wealth gains, defend working families, and press Congress to act on a tax code that treats income from wealth like income from work.
If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your secure donation will go through immediately:
Thank you for your commitment to tax fairness.
Senator Ron Wyden
U.S. Senator, Oregon