Mamdani’s Millionaire Tax Plan — What NYC mayor-elect's tax proposal means for people earning above $1 million

Millionaire Tax Plan: New York City (NYC) mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has proposed a tax plan during his campaign, which aims to target the wealthiest Americans living in the city in order to fund other developmental infrastructure needs for the people.

According to a recent Forbes report, Mamdani plans to tax the millionaires living in New York to raise funds for projects like universal free early childcare services, free bus rides for the public and cut down the housing costs in the city.

What is the Millionaire Tax Plan?

Zohran Mamdani, during his campaign, proposed that once he comes to power, the 33-year-old Democratic Socialist will impose a 2% tax rate on the wealthiest 1% of New Yorkers who earn more than $1 million every year.

This proposal seeks to raise $4 billion per year, which will go towards the developmental infrastructure needs for the residents of the city.

“This tiny share of the city population,” according to Mamdani's campaign website, cited in the news portal's report, “takes home 35% of all income earned by New York City residents.”

Although this proposed 2% extra tax is only applicable to people who earn more than $1 million annually, the news report highlighted that the millionaire tax proposal will impact nearly 34,000 households in the city in efforts to make New York's tax system more progressive.

Mamdani also reportedly said that the same 1% wealthiest New Yorkers benefited from the tax cuts under the first Trump administration, and recently under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which was signed in July 2025.

Will Mamdani's plan work?

During his campaign, Mamdani highlighted that it does not matter whether a New York City resident earns $50,000 or $5 million per year; the difference in the tax they pay starts at 3.078% and goes up to 3.876%, marking a small rise in an otherwise high income spread.

Zohran Mamdani claimed that the plans of taxing the millionaires will work, highlighting states like Massachusetts, which already has a similar surtax system.

In November 2022, Massachusetts approved a 4% surtax on personal income of more than $1 million, and in the first three quarters since the implementation of the same, they raised $1.8 billion in tax collections, according to the Forbes report.

“I’ll use every tool available to bring down rent, create world‑class public transit, and make it easier to raise a family,” said Mamdani on his campaign website.

Although people fear that a millionaire might leave New York after the additional tax rates are imposed, the news portal's report suggests that many residents left Massachusetts, but they mostly belonged to the upper-middle-class taxpayers, and were not millionaires.