President Joe Biden is planning the first major federal tax hike since 1993 to help pay for the long-term economic program designed as a follow-up to his pandemic-relief bill, according to people familiar with the matter. Unlike the $1.9 trillion Covid-19 stimulus act, the next initiative, which is expected to be even bigger, won't rely just on government debt as a funding source.

While it's been increasingly clear that tax hikes will be a component—Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said that at least part of the next bill will have to be paid for, and pointed to higher tax rates—key advisers are now making preparations for a package of measures that could include an increase in both the corporate tax rate and the individual rate for high earners.

With each tax break and credit having its own lobbying constituency to back it, tinkering with rates is fraught with political risk. That helps explain why the tax hikes in Bill Clinton's signature 1993 tax overhaul stand out from the modest modifications done since.