The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax

ProPublica examines how the U.S. income-tax system treats wages and increases in asset wealth differently, allowing extremely wealthy asset owners to experience enormous gains in economic resources while reporting comparatively little taxable income. The investigation presents this primarily as a consequence of legal realization rules rather than simply illegal evasion.

Using confidential IRS records and Forbes wealth estimates, the reporters calculate that the twenty-five richest Americans gained an estimated $401 billion from 2014 through 2018 while paying $13.6 billion in federal income taxes. ProPublica calls that a 3.4 percent true tax rate, a measure that includes unrealized appreciation and is not the same as a statutory effective-income-tax rate. The analysis also documents the buy, borrow, die strategy while acknowledging the limits of wealth estimates and the distinction between taxes legally owed and broader questions of tax design.