Average Net Worth of Republican Members on Tax-Writing Panels Is Nearly $15 million–Richest Will Save Millions from Trump Cuts

Multimillionaires will be making tax policy for working Americans, most prominently by pushing through extensions of the expiring provisions of the 2017 Trump-GOP tax law that mostly help them and their wealthy donors. The average net worth of the Republicans in control of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee and Senate Finance Committee is nearly $15 million. The wealthiest GOP members could give themselves a roughly $1.8 million annual income tax cut and their families a potential one-time estate tax cut of $22.8 million–a potential total of $24.6 million in tax cuts if they pass legislation to extend the Trump Tax bill.

“The multimillionaire Republicans in charge of these key committees cannot properly represent average Americans’ tax and spending interests,” said ATF Executive Director David Kass. “Their prioritization of extending Trump’s tax scam demonstrates their disconnect from middle and working-class constituents’ needs. While wealthy Democrats also serve on these committees, they aren’t promoting continuing the entire Trump tax legislation which primarily benefits rich individuals like them and giant corporations—legislation that would add trillions to the deficit and threaten funding for Social Security, healthcare, education,  housing and other vital public services. A system where millionaires vote for tax benefits favoring other wealthy elites undermines both our economy and democracy.”

Of the 26 Republican members of the Ways and Means Committee, over two-thirds are worth more than a million dollars. Almost two-thirds of the Republicans on the Finance Committee are millionaires. Nine of the 39 GOP members of the two tax-writing panels are worth over $10 million. Vern Buchanan (FL), the highest-ranking GOP member of Ways and Means besides the chairman, is worth nearly a quarter of a billion dollars. 

Following are profiles of the deca-millionaire (worth over $10 million) Republicans who stand to benefit from the tax policy they will help drive:

*Quiver Quantitative, a non-partisan firm, analyzed rough estimates of 2023 assets and income, focusing on Members of Congress’s assets and stock trades. See ATF analysis for details

Rep. Vern Buchanan (FL-16) (Est. Net Worth: $249 million)

Buchanan, among the wealthiest members of Congress, derives the great bulk–up to $13 million worth, and perhaps more, in 2023 alone–of his huge income in a form that benefits from one of the biggest breaks for the wealthy in the 2017 Trump-GOP tax law: the “pass-through loophole”. Buchanan voted for the law and is a leading proponent of permanently extending its provisions–including the pass-through loophole–set to expire at the end of 2025. 

This special break allows owners of unincorporated businesses to subtract 20% of their income before figuring their taxes. Often misleadingly termed a “small-business tax break,” the pass-through loophole in fact overwhelmingly benefits super-wealthy business owners like Buchanan, who owns a chain of car dealerships in Florida and North Carolina among other investments. Buchanan also benefits from the loophole’s application to real-estate investors. Over half the loophole’s tax reduction goes to households like Buchanan’s with over $1 million of annual income. By contrast, the average small business owner earns about $55,000 a year. 

The loophole’s rules are complex and Congressional financial disclosures do not provide exact asset and income figures. But assuming Buchanan was able to deduct 20% from the roughly $13 million of pass-through income he received in 2023, and assuming that the great bulk of his income was taxed at the 37% top rate, he could have saved almost $900,000 in taxes in one year from this single loophole he helped create. If all of his commercial rental income qualified for the loophole too, he would have saved even more. 

Permanent extension of the pass-through loophole would cost $700 billion in lost public revenue over 10 years. That’s money that could be used to boost actual small businesses through Small Business Administration loans; physical and digital infrastructure improvements to ease shipments and better connect with customers; assistance in offering employee healthcare; aid to education and job training to create a more employable workforce; and other public investments.

Buchanan’s total income in 2023 was up to around $20 million. If, as is possible, almost all of that income was eligible for the pass-through loophole, then that would leave roughly $16 million ($20 million minus 20%, or $4 million) of taxable income. Here the Trump law hands wealthy people like Buchanan another gift: it lowered the top ordinary income tax rate from 39.6% to 37%. That rate cut alone could have saved Buchanan some $400,000 or more in just one year.  (A relatively small portion of his income was dividend and capital gains that are granted their own special tax break–a nearly half-off rate discount on the highest incomes–but that’s not a loophole created by the Trump law.) 

Extending the 37% rate rather than allowing the previous 39.6% rate to return on schedule would cost $500 billion in lost public revenue over 10 years. That’s nearly enough money to provide free pre-K education to all the four-year-olds in the country as well as expanded daycare for 16 million kids; and more than enough to expand Medicaid coverage to over three million low-income people. There are numerous other public investments to improve the lives of middle- and low-income families that such a slight increase in the top tax rate could fund.

Since he’s worth over $250 million, Buchanan’s family is one of the elite few who could eventually be subject to the estate tax (only the richest one in 500 households pays the tax). The Trump law doubled the amount of wealth exempt from the tax; after annual inflation adjustments, the exemption is $28 million per couple in 2025. If the weakened version of the tax is allowed to expire on schedule at the end of that year, the exemption amount will fall by half to an estimated $14 million. 

So the law Buchanan is working so hard to permanently extend could (based on the top estate tax rate of 40% charged on fortunes that exceed the exemption amount by $1 million or more) save his family $5.6 million in tax–with that figure growing each year as the exemption amount continues to rise with inflation. 

Allowing the estate tax to return to its former strength would still exempt 99% of all American families from the tax, but would preserve $167 billion in public revenue over the next decade. That’s almost enough to execute President Biden’s plan to substantially expand the number of houses and apartments built and rehabilitated, thus bringing down housing costs; and more than enough for Biden’s proposal to improve home- and community-based care for older and disabled Americans provided through Medicaid. And those are just two public investments that could be made on behalf of all the people not lucky enough to inherit a fortune.

Rep. Kevin Hern (OK-01) (Est. Net Worth: $110 million)

Because almost all of Hern’s fortune is invested in financial instruments, his income consists almost entirely of dividends and capital gains. Though this kind of income (which is enjoyed almost exclusively by the wealthy) receives its own massive tax break, it’s not one created by the 2017 Trump-GOP tax law. 

Hern’s family would, this year save some $5.6 million in estate tax thanks to the Trump law’s weakening of that levy. Those savings would increase each year with the annual inflation adjustments to the estate-tax exemption amount. 

Sen. Ron Johnson (WI) (Est. Net Worth: $54.6 million)

Johnson was the driving force behind the pass-through loophole, demanding it be included in the 2017 Trump tax law as the price of his support. A report from ProPublica later connected his championing of this particular loophole to two wealthy households who together contributed around $20 million in support of his most recent Senate campaign and would be among the rich business owners who benefit most from it. 

In 2023, Johnson received up to $1 million in rent from a commercial property he owns, income that may be eligible for the pass-through loophole. If so, he could have saved up to around $74,000 in taxes that year (37% of the $200,000 subtracted). 

The Johnson family is another lucky household that could save $5.6 million this year in estate tax because the Trump law doubled the exemption amount, with those potential savings growing annually with the inflation adjustment of the threshold.

Rep. Greg Murphy (NC-03) (Est. Net Worth: $22.6 million)

Murphy has up to $5 million invested in a pass-through business that in 2023 produced up to $1 million of income. The pass-through loophole could have saved him up to $74,000 in taxes that year alone. Despite his significant wealth, Murphy’s family is currently exempt from the estate tax thanks to the Trump law. And if he succeeds in preventing the more robust form of the tax from returning on schedule in 2026, the Murphy clan could save $3.6 million.

Sen. Steve Daines (MT) (Est. Net Worth: $18.9 million)

Daines voted for the Trump-GOP tax law. He received up to around $4 million in rent on commercial office buildings in 2023, income that might be eligible for the pass-through loophole. If it is, he might have saved up to $300,000 in taxes that year. The Trump law exempts $28 million from the estate tax, so the law would exempt the Daines’ fortune; if the senator is successful in preventing the stronger form of it from returning in 2026, he could save his heirs $2 million.

Rep. Carol Miller (WV-01) (Est. Net Worth: $14.7 million)

In 2023, Miller received up to $2 million of income that definitely is or may be covered by the pass-through loophole: up to $1 million from her husband’s S corporation, and $1 million in commercial rent. If the rent as well as the S corporation income is eligible for the loophole, she could have saved up to around $150,000 in tax in that year. Miller’s family is shielded from the estate tax under the current GOP law, and if the congresswoman helps stop the return of the less generous exemption she could save her family $400,000.