Clinton’s Tax Conceit

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Ricochet:

Clinton’s Tax Conceit

Richard Epstein September 19, 2016 2 COMMENTS

 

Hillary Clinton has revealed further details of her plan for the fiscal future of the United States. Her vision addresses both sides of the equation: how and from whom taxes should be raised; and how and for whom they should be spent. Her plan is squarely within the progressive tradition. She insists that “The middle class needs a raise,” and that the federal government will pay for the raise by increasing taxes on the top one percent, who once again must be made to pay their “fair share.”

 

The notion of diminishing returns from higher taxes at no point informs the key features of the Clinton plan: a four percent income tax surcharge on those earning over $5,000,000 per year; the imposition of the “Buffett rule” that requires an alternative minimum tax of at least 30 percent on those earning more than a million dollars per year; an increased capital gains rate for investments held for less than six years; a hefty increase in the estate tax, by reducing its base to $3.5 million per person from the present $5.45 million per person; an increase in the top rate from 40 percent to 45 percent; and capping the charitable deduction at 28 percent, even for people in a higher individual tax bracket.

 

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Scoring the New Trump Tax Plan

 

James Pethokoukis September 19, 2016 14 COMMENTS

 

There’s new modeling of Donald Trump’s new tax plan. This is never an easy exercise, but the Tax Foundation’s efforts were made that much more difficult by the inability of Team Trump to clearly specify the individual income tax rate on pass-through business income. And that makes a big difference, according the group:

 

Assuming that the individual income tax rate on pass-through business income is the same as the rates on other individual income, the Trump tax plan would reduce federal tax revenue by $4.4 trillion over the next decade. But if the tax rate on this income is instead intended to be the same as the tax rate on corporate business income, the plan would then reduce federal revenue by $5.9 trillion. In addition to these possibilities, which we see as upper and lower bounds for total revenue generation, the policy may reduce federal revenue somewhere in between.

https://ricochet.com/374256/scoring-new-trump-tax-plan/