Trump Tax Plan Would Cost Trillions, Boost Incomes For The Rich

[KamaAina]

http://www.npr.org/2016/09/19/494580145/analysis-trump-tax-plan-would-cost-trillions-boost-incomes-for-the-rich

In September of last year, Donald Trump released his first tax plan, but now he has made another go of it. Over the last couple of months, he has released an overhaul that changes rates and includes newly announced child care deductions. The revised plan would still cost the government trillions in revenues, according to a new analysis, though not as much as his last plan....

The new plan adopts individual tax brackets from the House Republicans' tax plan, creating three brackets of 12, 25, and 33 percent (down from the current seven brackets). It would also lower the corporate tax rate to 15 percent, eliminate the estate tax, and increase the standard deduction, among other things. Altogether, over 10 years, it would reduce federal revenue by around $4.4 to $5.9 trillion.

That $1.5-trillion gap between $4.4 and $5.9 trillion exists because one big aspect of the Trump tax plan has been unclear: how to tax "pass-through" businesses. In these firms, the owners pay taxes on earnings at individual income tax rates.

The plan would also make the tax code less progressive. While it would increase incomes across the income spectrum, it would increase them by much more for the richest Americans. The bottom four quintiles of income groups would see their incomes go up by 0.8 to 1.9 percent.

[pdxflyboy]

1. Authors

I believe Stephen Moore and Larry Kudlow wrote a large part of Trump's tax code, but I'm not sure.