Top Bank Executives Reap Millions in Tax Savings From Extended Trump-Era Cuts

A dozen of America’s highest-paid bank CEOs may have collectively saved nearly $53 million in personal taxes from a single provision in the 2017 Trump-GOP tax law—savings that will continue to grow now that the measure has been extended. That’s the conclusion of the latest report from Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF), which has been tracking the personal windfalls reaped by top executives across industries.

The 2025 tax-and-spending package, passed with heavy Republican support, locks in permanent extensions of the Trump-era individual tax breaks. Critics argue the plan delivers the biggest benefits to wealthy bankers and other elites, while simultaneously stripping away healthcare and food assistance from millions of Americans and piling trillions more onto the national debt.

“America’s financial titans were banking on retaining the Trump-GOP tax law that may have saved them nearly $53 million from just one break – and their lobbying succeeded,” said David Kass, executive director of ATF. “The huge bonanzas enjoyed by the nation’s top bank CEOs is emblematic of who the Republican law was really meant to benefit–and who it will benefit now that it’s been extended. Millions of workers and families will lose healthcare and food assistance, but at least the bankers will be well paid!”

At the core of the windfall is the 2017 reduction in ordinary-income tax rates, which applied across the board but offered the most value to ultra-wealthy earners. Over the law’s first seven years, the twelve bank executives took in more than $2 billion in compensation, meaning the change in the top marginal rate—from 39.6% to 37%—proved especially lucrative. That top rate only applied to income above roughly $730,000 per couple in 2024, the final year of ATF’s analysis. Cutting rates across all brackets cost the government about $1.2 trillion in lost revenue over ten years. Making those cuts permanent will cost another $2.2 trillion.

“Ordinary” income, for most taxpayers, means wages or salary, but the category also covers other sources such as interest and rental income. While bank executives undoubtedly receive large sums in investment income from dividends and long-term capital gains, those categories are taxed under separate rules unaffected by the 2017 overhaul.

The ATF study found that JP Morgan Chase’s James Dimon was the highest earner in the group, pulling in $487 million in ordinary-income compensation during the first seven years of the Trump law. His tax savings from the lower rates could have reached nearly $13 million. At the other end of the spectrum, Robin Vince of the Bank of New York Mellon still took home more than $39 million over the same period and may have kept over $1 million in additional after-tax income.

ATF noted that while corporations must disclose executive compensation publicly, individual tax returns remain private. The figures in the report reflect the maximum possible savings, as actual liabilities would vary depending on each executive’s filing status, deductions, credits, and other income adjustments.

By fLEXI tEAM