On Thursday, Sept. 15, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump released his latest vision of his tax plan, which includes substantial tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.
Aspects of his plan include reducing the current seven tax brackets down to three, repealing the estate tax, lowering the tax rates for businesses from 35 percent to 15 percent, and taxing corporate off-shore holdings at a one-time rate of 10 percent. This plan will not only increase domestic growth by 3.5 percent per year for the next decade, but it will create an estimated 25 million jobs as well, according to the Trump campaigns website.
According to a report by Mark Zandi, an economist writing for economy.com, if Trump’s tax plan is put into effect the results would be disastrous. 3.5 million jobs would disappear by 2026, income increases would stop, debt would skyrocket and the stock market would drop drastically. Essentially, the United States would be plunged into another recession.
The right-leaning Tax Foundation has predicted a different outcome, stating that under Trump’s proposed plan the economy would grow between 6.9 to 8.2 percent, increase wages by 5.4 to 6.3 percent, and creating 1.8 million to 2.2 million new jobs. It’s worth noting that this analysis is not taking into consideration proposals by Trump that would have a direct impact on the economy, such as spending, trade agreements, and immigration.
Trump has stated that his tax proposal would represent the biggest tax cut since Ronald Reagan. However, New York University tax policy expert Lily Batchelder found that Trump’s plan would raise income taxes for a significant portion of the population, over half of single parents and one-fifth of families with single children. These finding were corroborated by the Tax Foundation, who were able to replicate Batchelder’s results.
Of note is the numerous benefits for corporations and the top earners in the United States, including Donald Trump. Lowering the business tax to 15 percent will, in fact, help small businesses, but it will also help corporations, hedge funds, and major real estate companies—such as those owned by Trump. This will cost the United States between $4.4 trillion to $5.9 over the next decade.
Trump also wants to eliminate the estate tax—commonly referred to as the death tax. The estate of a deceased person is determined, and if it adds up to $5,450,000—as of 2016—the estate is subject to this tax. This effects only .2 percent of the population, including Donald Trump.
It’s already been shown that Trump is not above using his bid for the White House to turn a hefty personal profit. This questionable behavior—one of many—disproves his claims that he’s for the working person, as he is consistently putting himself above 99.8 percent of them.
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