Taxes That Are Fair, Simple, and Paid For

Why this matters

If you read my plans for Social Security, Medicaid, and the federal budget, you’ll notice something. Each one asks people at the top to pay more.

I’m not going to hide that or scatter it across five papers and hope nobody adds it up. Here’s the whole picture in one place: who pays more, who pays less, and why.

Where things stand

In 2025, Congress made the 2017 tax cuts permanent and added new ones: a bigger child tax credit, no tax on tips and overtime for a few years, a new deduction for seniors, a much larger deduction for state and local taxes, and a higher estate tax exemption.

Some of that helps working families, and I’d keep it. But the bill as a whole wasn’t paid for. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates it will add about $3.4 trillion to deficits in its first ten years. The benefits tilted to the top. When the Yale Budget Lab counted both the tax cuts and the cuts to Medicaid and food assistance, it found the bottom fifth of households lose about 2.9% of their income, while the top 1% gain about $30,000 a year.

To be fair to the other side: the top 10% of households already pay about 70% of all federal taxes. High earners carry a lot of the load, and a good tax code shouldn’t punish success. My goal isn’t to soak anyone. It’s to stop borrowing for tax cuts we can’t afford, and to make sure a dollar earned from work isn’t taxed more heavily than a dollar earned any other way.

$3.4Tadded to deficits by the 2025 tax law over ten years (CBO)

~70%of federal taxes already paid by the top 10% of households

$200KHouseholds below this pay nothing more under my plans

How the load shifted to working families

In 1960, the top federal income tax rate was 91%. Today it’s 37%. The cuts came under both parties, starting with Kennedy and continuing through Reagan, Bush, and Trump, with increases under the first Bush and Clinton along the way.

Source: Wolters Kluwer CCH, historical top marginal income tax rates.

Almost nobody actually paid 91%. Deductions and shelters kept real rates far lower, and the income tax today is still progressive. In 2026, the top 1% will pay about 31% of their income in federal taxes, compared with about 9% for the bottom 60%.

But something did change, and it landed on the middle class. As income and corporate taxes on the top came down, Washington leaned more and more on the payroll tax. The biggest piece, the Social Security tax, starts on your first dollar of pay and stops at $184,500. Payroll taxes went from about 20% of federal revenue in 1964 to about 35% today, while corporate taxes fell from about 21% to 11%. More than 4 in 5 taxpayers now pay more in payroll taxes than in income taxes.

Source: Office of Management and Budget historical tables, compiled by Voronoi; CBPP.

That’s the quiet shift. A nurse in Sandy pays Social Security tax on every dollar she earns. Someone earning millions stops paying it in early March. That’s why my Social Security plan starts with the payroll tax: one lower rate on every paycheck, with no cap.

Why a CEO can pay a lower rate than a nurse

Work and wealth are taxed differently. A paycheck faces income tax rates up to 37%, plus payroll taxes. Profits from selling stock held more than a year face a top rate of 20%, plus 3.8% for high earners. And stock that’s never sold isn’t taxed at all.

That gap shapes how the wealthiest people get paid. Many top executives take most of their pay in company stock, and some founders draw a small salary while their shares grow by billions. That growth isn’t taxed until the stock is sold, and the very wealthy have found they don’t need to sell. They can borrow against their stock for cash to live on, and loans aren’t income. When they die, a rule called the “step-up in basis” resets the value of the stock for their heirs, and a lifetime of gains is never taxed at all.

When ProPublica obtained IRS records for the 25 richest Americans, it found their wealth grew by more than $400 billion from 2014 to 2018, while the federal income tax they paid came to about 3.4% of that growth. That measure compares taxes to wealth growth, not income, and economists argue over it. But the basic point isn’t in dispute: a teacher can’t defer taxes on her paycheck until she dies. A billionaire can defer taxes on his stock forever.

None of this is illegal. That’s the problem. I’d fix it in two ways:

End the step-up for gains above $5 million. When someone dies, gains above the first $5 million would be taxed, the same line my Social Security plan already uses. Family farms and businesses that stay in the family could wait to pay until they’re sold, so no one has to sell the ranch.
Count stock pay honestly. Investment income above $200,000 already pays into Social Security under my plan, and business profits pay the same rate as a paycheck. Together with ending the step-up, that means the biggest fortunes can’t grow untaxed forever.

Everything I’d change, in one place

Plan	Who pays more	Who pays less
Social Security	Workers earning above about $206,000 pay the same rate on every paycheck. Above $200,000 in income ($250,000 for couples), business profits pay in, and investment income pays in at half the rate.	More than 9 in 10 workers, and the businesses that employ them
Medicaid	Business income above $400,000 pays the same 3.8% Medicare tax that high earners’ paychecks already pay	No one under $400,000
Federal budget	Private equity managers (the carried-interest loophole), and highly profitable industries that get special subsidies	Everyone else, through a smaller debt
This paper	Estates over about $7 million, unsold gains above $5 million at death, the largest state and local tax deductions, the business-income deduction above $1 million, and anyone who cheats on their taxes	Families, through a simpler tax code, better IRS service, and protections from inflation

Along the way, my other plans also cut taxes for specific things: a $50 credit for small political donations, a tax-free first-home savings account, a credit for gun safes, and restored health insurance credits for families who buy their own coverage.

What it means for you

Most Utahns are wage earners. Here’s what my Social Security plan, the biggest change, does to a worker’s own share of the tax at different incomes. Nothing else on this site raises taxes on wages.

If you earn	Your Social Security tax each year
$50,000	about $325 less
$100,000	about $650 less
$150,000	about $975 less
$200,000	about $340 less
$300,000	about $5,200 more
$500,000	about $16,300 more

Above $200,000, the changes for business profits and investment income kick in, and above $400,000 the Medicaid plan’s 3.8% applies to business income too. If most of your income is above those lines, you’ll pay more. I’m asking that on purpose, and I think it’s fair.

My plan

1. Keep what works for working families

I’d keep the 2025 law’s tax rates, the larger standard deduction, the $2,200 child tax credit, and the new deduction for seniors. Families have planned around them, and pulling them back would be a tax hike on people who can’t afford one.

2. Trim the breaks at the very top

Bring the estate tax exemption back to about $7 million per person ($14 million for a married couple), down from $15 million. That still exempts more than 99% of estates. Family farms and businesses that stay in the family could spread the tax out over many years, so no one has to sell the ranch to pay it.
Phase down the bigger state and local tax deduction starting at $400,000 instead of $500,000. This deduction mostly helps people in high-tax states like New York and California. Utah’s low, flat income tax means most Utahns get little from it, so Utahns are helping pay for a break that mostly goes elsewhere.
Cap the 20% business-income deduction at $1 million of income. It helps millions of small businesses, and they keep it. But a deduction designed for the corner store shouldn’t hand million-dollar breaks to the biggest partnerships.
Close the carried-interest loophole, so private equity managers pay the same rates on their pay as everyone else.

3. Make everyone pay what they owe

Every Utahn who files a return, pays what’s due, and plays by the rules deserves to know everyone else is doing the same. Right now, they aren’t. The IRS estimates the gap between taxes owed and taxes paid was about $696 billion in a single year. Researchers estimate that something like the top 1% of earners account for about a third of it, mostly through income the IRS can’t easily check, like business profits and partnership income.

Instead of going after that money, Washington has cut the IRS. The agency lost roughly a quarter of its workforce in a year, and revenue from audits fell 35% in 2025. Audits of partnerships, where much of the complex high-end income flows, fell 76% between 2023 and 2025. The Yale Budget Lab estimates the cuts could cost the Treasury more than $860 billion over ten years.

Enforcement is one of the few things in government that pays for itself. Researchers have found that every dollar spent auditing high-income taxpayers brings back about $12, and that’s before counting the people who pay honestly because they know they could be checked. Cutting the IRS doesn’t save money. It hands a tax cut to the people breaking the law, and everyone else pays for it.

Restore stable funding for IRS enforcement, focused on high-income cheats, large partnerships, and complex corporate returns.
No higher audit rates for households under $400,000. The extra resources go after the people the tax gap actually comes from.
Catch and prosecute serious tax evaders, with real penalties. Hiding income is stealing from everyone who doesn’t.
Answer the phone. Part of the money should go to customer service, so honest taxpayers can get help and fix mistakes quickly.

4. Keep American business competitive

I’d keep the corporate rate at 21%. Before 2017, America had one of the highest corporate rates in the developed world, and companies moved profits and headquarters overseas. That’s fixed, and I wouldn’t undo it.

Small businesses are where most new jobs come from, and they should get a simpler deal:

Raise the deduction for starting a business from $5,000 to $20,000, so someone opening a shop or a landscaping company can write off more of their first-year costs.
Keep the full write-off for equipment and machinery that the 2025 law made permanent.
End special subsidies for highly profitable industries. A business that’s thriving doesn’t need a break the corner store can’t get.

5. Make filing free and simple

Most Americans have simple taxes: a paycheck, the standard deduction, maybe a child credit. The IRS already has their W-2s. Yet many still pay for software or a preparer.

Free, pre-filled returns. For simple filers, the IRS should send a return already filled in. You check it, fix anything that’s wrong, and sign. Many countries already do this. The IRS’s free Direct File program was ended for the 2026 filing season. I’d bring back a free option and go further.
No forced use. Anyone who wants to file their own way or use a preparer still can.

6. Stop the stealth tax hikes

Most of the tax code adjusts for inflation. Some of it doesn’t, so taxes creep up every year without anyone voting for it:

The income levels at which Social Security benefits get taxed are $25,000 and $32,000, and haven’t moved since the 1980s.
The tax-free amount when you sell your home, $250,000 or $500,000 for couples, hasn’t changed since 1997.
The $3,000 limit on deducting investment losses hasn’t changed since 1978.
The income lines for the 3.8% tax on investment income haven’t changed since it began in 2013.

I’d index every bracket, credit, and limit in the tax code to inflation. If Congress wants to raise taxes, it should have to vote for it.

7. Make every tax break prove itself

Tax breaks are spending by another name. A credit for one industry costs the Treasury just as much as a check would, but it gets far less scrutiny. I’d have every special tax break expire after 10 years unless Congress votes to keep it, with a nonpartisan report first on whether it did what it promised.

8. Count tariffs honestly

Tariffs are a tax, paid mostly by American families and businesses at the store. The Yale Budget Lab estimates current tariffs cost the average household roughly $800 to $1,300 a year. Any tariff that lasts should be voted on by Congress like any other tax. My full plan is in Free Trade, Fair Rules, and No Hidden Taxes.

What Utah can teach Washington

Utah keeps its tax system simple. There’s one flat income tax rate, now 4.45%, no city or county income taxes, and a constitution that dedicates income tax mainly to schools. Utah also balances its budget every year. You don’t have to agree with every tax cut the Legislature has passed to see the lesson: a simple tax code that people understand, and a rule that you pay for what you spend.

What I won’t do

Raise federal taxes on any household earning under $200,000.
Raise audit rates on households earning under $400,000.
Pass a tax cut with borrowed money. Every cut has to be paid for, the same rule I’d apply to new spending.
Create a national sales tax or value-added tax, which would hit working families hardest.
Tax the money in your 401(k) or IRA in new ways, or add new taxes on Social Security benefits.

Questions people ask

Isn’t this just a tax hike?

For people at the very top, yes, and I’m saying so plainly. For households under $200,000, no. Most of them get a tax cut through Social Security.

Won’t the wealthy just find a way around it?

Some will try. That’s why my plans close loopholes instead of just raising rates. Treating business profits like a paycheck stops owners from dodging payroll taxes with a tiny salary, and counting gains at death for estates over $5 million stops people from avoiding tax forever by never selling.

Won’t a bigger IRS come after people like me?

No. The money goes to audits of high-income filers, large partnerships, and big corporations, and my plan says outright that audit rates for households under $400,000 don’t go up. Most families would mostly notice that someone finally answers the phone.

Isn’t more money for the IRS just more government spending?

It’s spending that brings back more than it costs. Audits of high-income taxpayers return many times their cost, and cuts to enforcement add to the deficit. Every president from Reagan to Biden has proposed closing the tax gap. If we’re serious about the debt, collecting taxes already owed is the easiest place to start.

Doesn’t this hurt small businesses?

The vast majority of small businesses earn far less than $400,000 and see no change, except a bigger deduction for starting up. The business-income deduction stays for everyone under $1 million.

Why not just cut spending instead?

I’d cut spending too, and my budget plan does. But the gap is about $2 trillion a year. You can’t close it with cuts alone without gutting Social Security, Medicare, or the military. An honest plan takes some of both.

Is $200,000 the right line?

It’s well above what most Utah households earn, and it protects nearly every working family in the state. I’d rather draw a clear line and keep it than make promises I’d have to break.

The bottom line

A fair tax code asks everyone to pay their share, expects everyone to follow the law, doesn’t tax work more heavily than wealth, doesn’t creep up on you through inflation, and doesn’t borrow from our kids to pay for tax cuts today. Under my plans, families earning under $200,000 pay nothing more. Most pay less. And those of us who’ve done well pay a little more to keep the country solvent. That’s a trade I think most Utahns would sign up for.