--- title: "Most Americans continue to favor raising taxes on corporations, higher-income households" description: "Democrats are overwhelmingly supportive of raising taxes on these groups, while Republicans are more divided." date: "2025-03-19" authors: - name: "Andy Cerda" job_title: "Research Analyst" link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/andy-cerda/" url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/03/19/most-americans-continue-to-favor-raising-taxes-on-corporations-higher-income-households/" categories: - "Partisanship & Issues" - "Political Parties & Polarization" - "Taxes" --- # Most Americans continue to favor raising taxes on corporations, higher-income households With Congress [considering legislation](https://www.semafor.com/article/03/07/2025/republicans-next-step-on-trump-agenda-could-take-more-than-a-month) that would extend the tax cuts passed during the first Trump administration, a majority of Americans continue to say taxes should be increased, not decreased, for large businesses and corporations. They also say this for household income over $400,000 a year. [![A horizontal stacked bar chart showing that majorities of U.S. adults say taxes should be raised for large businesses, household income over $400K.](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/SR_25.03.19_taxes_1.png?w=620)](https://www.pewresearch.org/?attachment_id=202453) **More than six-in-ten U.S. adults (63%) say tax rates on large businesses and corporations should be raised.** This includes 34% who say they should be raised *a lot*. Another 19% say large businesses’ tax rates should be lowered, while 17% say they should be kept the same as they are now. **About six-in-ten (58%) say tax rates on household income over $400,000 should be raised, **including 23% who say these tax rates should be raised a lot. Much smaller shares say taxes on higher-income households should be lowered (19%) or kept the same (21%). As has been the case in recent years, views differ substantially by party. Democrats are overwhelmingly supportive of raising taxes on these groups, while Republicans are more divided. - 81% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents support raising taxes on large businesses and corporations. Nearly as many (74%) say taxes should be raised on household income over $400,000. - By contrast, 43% of Republicans and Republican leaners say taxes on each group should be raised, while roughly three-in-ten say taxes for these groups should be lowered. **How we did this** Pew Research Center conducted this survey to track Americans’ views on tax rates for large businesses and household income over $400,000. We surveyed 5,086 U.S. adults from Jan. 27 to Feb. 2, 2025. Everyone who took part in this survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), a group of people recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses who have agreed to take surveys regularly. This kind of recruitment gives nearly all U.S. adults a chance of selection. Interviews were conducted either online or by telephone with a live interviewer. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other factors. [Read more about the ATP’s methodology](https://www.pewresearch.org/the-american-trends-panel/). Here are the [questions used for this analysis](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/SR_25.03.19_taxes_questionnaire.pdf), along with [responses](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/SR_25.03.19_taxes_topline.pdf), and [its methodology](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2025/02/07/views-of-trump-methodology/). There are also ideological differences within each party: - At least half of moderate and liberal Republicans favor raising taxes on large businesses and corporations (58%) and household income over $400,000 (53%), compared with about a third each among conservative Republicans. - Large majorities of liberal Democrats say tax rates should be raised for large businesses (90%) and higher-income households (83%). Smaller majorities of conservative and moderate Democrats say the same (76% favor raising taxes for large corporations, 67% for higher-income households). #### Views by income level [![A dot plot showing that views of raising taxes on corporations, household income over $400K differ by income and party.](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/SR_25.03.19_taxes_2.png?w=620)](https://www.pewresearch.org/?attachment_id=202454) Overall, Americans across income levels have similar views on increasing tax rates for large corporations and higher-income households. But there are differences within partisan groups. Upper-income Republicans are *less likely* than lower-income Republicans to say taxes on these groups should be raised; upper-income Democrats are *more likely* than lower-income Democrats to say this. As a result, the partisan gaps on these questions are far wider among upper-income people than among lower-income people. - 91% of upper-income Democrats say tax rates on large businesses should be raised, and 80% say rates should be raised on household income over $400,000. By contrast, about a third of upper-income Republicans say the same for each group. - 72% of lower-income Democrats and 51% of lower-income Republicans say taxes on large businesses should be increased. The gap is even smaller when it comes to taxing household income over $400,000 (61% vs. 48%). #### Trends in partisan views Americans’ views on tax rates for large businesses and higher-income households have changed only modestly in recent years. U.S. adults are slightly less likely to say these taxes should be raised – and slightly more likely to say they should be lowered – than they were a few years ago. [![A stacked bar chart showing that Republicans have become more supportive of lowering taxes on corporations, household income over $400K.](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/SR_25.03.19_taxes_3.png?w=640)](https://www.pewresearch.org/?attachment_id=202455) This is largely attributable to Republicans becoming more likely to voice support for lower tax rates. About a third of Republicans (32%) now say tax rates for large businesses and corporations should be lowered. This is up 9 percentage points from April 2023 and 13 points from September 2021. About three-in-ten Republicans (27%) say taxes for household incomes over $400,000 should be lowered, up 10 points from 2021. Democrats’ views on these questions are largely unchanged over this period. *Note: Here are the [questions used for this analysis](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/SR_25.03.19_taxes_questionnaire.pdf), along with [responses](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/SR_25.03.19_taxes_topline.pdf), and [its methodology](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2025/02/07/views-of-trump-methodology/).*