47% Favor Higher Taxes for the Rich

Publication Date: 05/15/2026 9:45 AM CST

47% Favor Higher Taxes for the Rich

Publication: 05/15/2026 9:45 AM CST

Member Content

The content you are trying to access is currently only available to Gold Circle Members. If you are a member, please log in to view.

To learn more about becoming a Gold Circle Member, please refer to our membership page.

Full Toplines: RESTRICTED

Full Crosstabs URL: RESTRICTED

Toplines are free for use after embargo, if any. Crosstabs are confidential and not for public release. However, you may cite specific demographic data from these reports.
For any data released, please cite Napolitan News Service.

Public Content

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.