(NewsNation) — Actors like Cynthia Nixon, Mark Ruffalo, Ilana Glaser, Mandy Patinkin, George Takei and Morgan Spector all stumped for Zohran Mamdani — but they likely won’t take a pay cut.
While Mamdani is threatening to raise taxes on millionaires, many of these wealthy actors report their income not through a personal W-2 but via a corporate vehicle.
Yifan Yang, a New York-based CPA, told me: “Most people in the entertainment industry, including actors and actresses, get paid through their ‘loan-out’ companies (S-corp, LLC, & etc) and report their income through those entities to the IRS. It’s a passthrough entity so it doesn’t pay any Federal income tax. All income flow-through to the shareholder’s personal tax return.”
Mark Ruffalo arrives at the premiere of “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” on Monday, Aug. 15, 2022, at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles. Ruffalo is one of the actors who has signed a pledge vowing not to work with Israeli film institutions who are “complicit in genocide.” (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP) 
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – NOVEMBER 4: Cynthia Nixon poses at a photo call for 2ndStage Theater’s production of the new play “Marjorie Prime” at Sardi’s on November 4, 2025 in New York City. “Marjorie Prime” begins performances at The Hayes Theatre on November 20th. (Photo by Bruce Glikas/Getty Images)
Basically, the celebs likely filed as a corporation, not an individual, and so, according to Yang, “For NYC the corporate tax rate is 8.85%.” Which is a hell of a lot less than the 52% top marginal rate for the highest earners that Mamdani is proposing. No wonder they love him so much: Socialism for everyone but them!
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