Did Biden increase taxes? He signed two tax increases into law, and both applied to large corporations rather than to individuals. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 created a 15% corporate alternative minimum tax on companies with more than $1 billion in annual profits and a 1% excise tax on corporate stock buybacks. Every proposal to raise rates on high-income individuals, on capital gains, or on the corporate income tax rate itself was introduced by the administration but never passed Congress.
The Two Corporate Tax Increases He Signed
Both increases came out of the Inflation Reduction Act and took effect for tax years beginning after December 31, 2022. Both are still on the books for 2026.
The Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax
The Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax works as a floor. A corporation with average annual book income above $1 billion over a three-year period must pay at least 15% of its adjusted financial statement income, even when its regular tax liability would come out lower. 1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 55 – Alternative Minimum Tax Imposed The three-year averaging period keeps a company from ducking below the threshold in a single weak year. In practice, only a few hundred of the largest publicly traded companies are affected. The IRS is still issuing interim guidance on how those companies should calculate adjusted financial statement income and apply the 15% floor.
The 1% Stock Buyback Excise Tax
The buyback excise tax applies to corporate stock repurchases made after December 31, 2022. 2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 4501 It is calculated on a net basis. A company subtracts the value of any new stock it issued during the year from the value of stock it repurchased, then pays 1% on the difference. If issuance exceeds repurchases, nothing is owed.
Several categories fall outside the tax. Total repurchases under $1 million in a tax year are excluded. Stock contributed to an employer-sponsored retirement plan or ESOP is exempt. So are repurchases that happen as part of a corporate reorganization where no gain or loss is recognized, along with regulated investment companies, real estate investment trusts, and securities dealers acting in the ordinary course of business. 3Federal Register. Excise Tax on Repurchase of Corporate Stock The 1% rate has not changed. Biden later proposed quadrupling it to 4%, and that proposal never became law.
What Did Not Change for Individual Taxpayers
Much of the public impression that Biden raised taxes on individuals traces back to proposals that were floated but never enacted. None of them advanced through Congress, and with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act rate structure now made permanent by later legislation, none has a realistic path forward.
The administration proposed raising the top marginal rate from 37% back to 39.6%, its pre-TCJA level, on taxable income above $400,000 for single filers and $450,000 for married couples filing jointly. It did not pass.
A separate proposal would have taxed long-term capital gains at ordinary income rates for taxpayers with income over $1 million, replacing the current preferential 20% top rate. It did not pass.
The Net Investment Income Tax, a 3.8% surcharge that applies to investment income above $200,000 for single filers and $250,000 for joint filers, would have been expanded to cover all income above $400,000, including active business income that currently sits outside the tax. 4Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 559, Net Investment Income Tax It did not pass.
The administration also proposed eliminating stepped-up basis on inherited assets above a $5 million per-person exemption. Under current law, when you inherit property, the tax basis resets to fair market value at the date of death, wiping out unrealized capital gains that built up during the decedent’s lifetime. 5Internal Revenue Service. Publication 551 (12/2025), Basis of Assets The proposal would have treated death as a taxable event for appreciated assets above the exemption. It did not pass either.
Corporate Proposals That Also Failed
The headline corporate proposal was raising the statutory corporate income tax rate from 21% to 28%, partially unwinding the TCJA’s cut from 35%. That would have applied to all corporate taxable income, not just income above a threshold. The administration also proposed raising the corporate alternative minimum tax rate from 15% to 21% and increasing the GILTI rate on foreign earnings while switching to a country-by-country calculation that would have removed the ability to blend high-tax and low-tax foreign income together. None of these were enacted.
Biden-Era Tax Benefits That Have Since Expired
Biden signed several tax benefits for households as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, but most were terminated ahead of schedule by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in July 2025.
Home Energy and Clean Vehicle Credits
The Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit covered 30% of qualifying energy upgrades to a primary residence, up to $3,200 per year, with $1,200 available for improvements like windows, doors, and insulation, and $2,000 for heat pumps, water heaters, and biomass stoves. 6Internal Revenue Service. Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit It is not available for property placed in service after December 31, 2025. 7Internal Revenue Service. FAQs for Modification of Sections 25C, 25D, 25E, 30C, 30D, 45L, 45W, and 179D Under the One Big Beautiful Bill
The Residential Clean Energy Credit covered 30% of the cost of solar panels, wind turbines, geothermal heat pumps, fuel cells, and battery storage, with no annual dollar cap except for fuel cells. 8Internal Revenue Service. Residential Clean Energy Credit The IRA originally kept the 30% rate through 2032. It is now unavailable for expenditures made after December 31, 2025. Homeowners who installed qualifying equipment before that date can still claim it, and unused amounts can be carried forward.
The New Clean Vehicle Credit of up to $7,500 applied to qualifying plug-in electric and fuel cell vehicles. The full amount split into two $3,750 components, one tied to critical mineral sourcing and one to battery component manufacturing, and buyers could transfer the credit to a participating dealer at the point of sale. 9Internal Revenue Service. Credits for New Clean Vehicles Purchased in 2023 or After The credit is not available for vehicles acquired after September 30, 2025.
Enhanced ACA Premium Tax Credits
The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 temporarily boosted the premium tax credits used to buy insurance through the ACA marketplaces, and the Inflation Reduction Act extended that enhancement through the end of 2025. It reduced the maximum share of household income spent on premiums at every income tier and opened eligibility to people earning above 400% of the federal poverty level who were previously shut out.
The enhanced credits expired on December 31, 2025. The House passed a three-year extension in January 2026, but that bill still needs Senate approval. Without one, the subsidies revert to the pre-2021 formula.
A Note on the Child Tax Credit
The American Rescue Plan raised the Child Tax Credit to $3,600 for children under six and $3,000 for children ages six through seventeen, made it fully refundable, and delivered half of it as advance monthly payments from July through December 2021. That expansion lasted one tax year. From 2022 through 2024, the credit returned to $2,000 per qualifying child with limited refundability. Beginning in 2025, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act set the maximum at $2,200 per child, indexed to inflation, with the refundable Additional Child Tax Credit capped at $1,700 and a $2,500 earned income floor to claim the refundable portion. 10Internal Revenue Service. Child Tax Credit
One Tax Change Often Blamed on Biden That Was Not His
Starting in 2022, businesses had to begin capitalizing and amortizing research and development expenses, over five years for domestic work and fifteen years for foreign work, instead of deducting them immediately. This was a real hit for R&D-heavy companies that had relied on immediate expensing.
Biden did not sign this into law. The change was part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, written with a delayed effective date of January 1, 2022. Despite bipartisan interest in reversing it during his term, no legislation restoring immediate R&D expensing reached his desk. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act later created a new Section 174A that permanently restores immediate expensing for domestic R&D beginning with tax years after December 31, 2024. Foreign R&D still has to be amortized over fifteen years.
So the short answer to whether Biden raised taxes is yes, but narrowly: two increases on large corporations, both still in effect. The individual tax increases most often associated with his administration were proposals, not law, and the household tax benefits he did sign have largely been repealed.