47% Favor Higher Taxes for the Rich

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  • Public opinion is nearly a dead heat: 47% say it’s more important for the rich to pay high levels of tax, while 46% say it’s more important to ensure everyone has the opportunity to succeed and become rich.
    • By a 52% to 36% margin, Republicans say that ensuring everyone has the opportunity is more important.
    • On the other hand, Democrats disagree by a margin of 59% to 37%.
  • A majority (55%) believe that when people start successful businesses and make a lot of money, it generally improves the lives of others (like customers and employees).
    • About one third (31%) disagree.
    • Fourteen percent (14%) are not sure.
    • Two thirds (66%) of Republicans say when people start successful businesses and make a lot of money, their customers’ and employees’ lives are improved.
    • A plurality (47%) of Democrats also believes the lives of others are improved by these successful people, but 38% disagree.
  • One third (35%) of registered voters believe that, over his lifetime, Jeff Bezos (the billionaire founder of Amazon.com) will pay less in taxes than the average American.
    • Just 11% say Bezos will pay about the same as the average American.
    • Nineteen percent (19%) are not sure.
    • Another third (35%) say Bezos will pay more than the average American:
      • 13% say a little more
      • 13% say 100 times more
      • 9% say 100,000 times more
    • Almost half (48%) of Democrats say Bezos will pay less than the average American over his lifetime. Just 22% of Republicans agree.
  • Looking at the percentage of his income, 50% of voters say Bezos pays less in taxes than the average American.
    • This is 10 points up from January 2024.
    • Currently, 31% say he pays more, and just 8% say he pays about the same as the average American.
    • Sixty-four percent (64%) of Democrats believe Bezos pays a lower percentage of his income in taxes than the average American.
    • Conversely, 43% of Republicans believe Bezos pays a higher percentage.

This data is from a Napolitan News Service survey of 1,000 Registered Voters conducted online by Scott Rasmussen, May 13-14, 2026. RMG Research, Inc., conducted the field work for the survey. It has a margin of error of +/- 3.1.