While Democrats have dropped several ideas to hike taxes on the top 0.1% to pay for President Joe Biden’s economic agenda, the bill that passed the House of Representatives last month included a millionaire’s surtax, a 5% levy on incomes over $10 million and an additional 3% tax on those above $25 million.

The surtax, which is projected by the Joint Committee on Taxation to raise $228 billion over the next decade, applies to a broader definition of income, including capital gains, making it harder to avoid through deductions. It wouldn’t go into effect until 2022, however, giving the super-wealthy an opportunity to sell now and over the next couple weeks, saving as much as 8% on taxes.

Easy Decision
“It’s not an exodus from the market,” Seiler’s Sevilla said. Instead, planners are sitting down with wealthy tech clients and gauging the impact of the surtax and other tax proposals, then calculating how much investments would need to rise to justify holding onto them. “If they know they cannot exceed that, the decision is easy,” Sevilla said.

The 167 Americans on the Bloomberg index are worth about $3.6 trillion, up 47% since the beginning of last year. Their wealth gains have been driven by a rapid run-up in stock valuations during that period, with the S&P 500 Index up about 45% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index gaining 75%.

The top billionaires’ stock sales have soared faster than their wealth. In 2019, the richest Americans sold just $6.6 billion of stock, a similar amount as in previous years.

The selling really picked up in 2020, as Democratic candidates were on the campaign trail proposing to raise rates on the rich. Advisers spent much of the year warning of higher taxes as early as 2021 if Democrats took over.

Meanwhile, stock valuations were surging last year, particularly in tech stocks benefiting from trends unleashed by the pandemic.

Nvidia Corp. co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang sold shares in the chipmaker in July 2020 as it was hitting new highs, his first sales in almost three years. The stock price has nearly tripled since then, and Huang’s sales have accelerated as well. He’s sold $426 million so far this year, on top of $168 million in 2020.

Another factor driving sales is a wave of initial public offerings, which made it possible for founders of successful startups to diversify their fortunes for the first time.

Two of Airbnb Inc.’s three cofounders -- Joseph Gebbia and Nathan Blecharczyk -- have together sold more than $1 billion worth of stock since the vacation-rental company went public in December of last year. Another co-founder, CEO Brian Chesky, hasn’t sold any shares this year, according to filings.