Stock buybacks have hit record levels this year but they're about to get hit by taxes. These 10 companies have been the biggest buyers of their own shares in 2022.

The Democrats plan to introduce a 1% excise tax on stock buybacks as part of President Biden's latest bill.Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

• The Democrats plan to introduce a 1% tax on stock buybacks as part of Joe Biden's climate and tax bill.
• S&P 500 companies spent over $280 billion buying back their own shares in the most recent quarter.

The Democrats are set to introduce a 1% tax on stock buybacks as part of President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act.

The tax - which has been supported in the past by high-profile Democrats including Senator Elizabeth Warren - is unlikely to be welcomed by investors.

A buyback is when a company repurchases its own shares in the marketplace. It returns money to investors by boosting the company's stock price, while also boosting key performance metrics such as earnings per share.

Mega-cap companies including Apple and Facebook parent Meta Platforms have been major proponents of stock buybacks in recent years.

And the top 20 S&P 500 companies spent a record $118 billion buying back their own shares in the first quarter of 2022, up 70% from the same quarter in 2021, according to index data. Over the last five years, that number rises to a staggering $1.24 trillion.

Here are the 10 companies that have spent most on stock buybacks so far this year.