Tax Plans from Presidential Candidates

Trump would slash tax rates and push millions of households off the income tax rolls with a proposed tax cut that would be nearly triple the size of th1e Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003. The Trump plan would take the top individual tax rate to 25 percent from 39.6 percent, repeal the estate tax, cut the corporate tax rate to 15 percent from 35 percent and tax business profits of high-income households at a lower rate than their wages.

Although he insists his plan wouldn’t increase budget deficits, independent analyses from across the political spectrum conclude otherwise.

Two analyses, one by the Tax Foundation and the other by the Tax Policy Center, used different methodologies to arrive at a similar conclusion: The Trump plan would cut tax revenues by over $10 trillion in the next decade.

The biggest benefits would go to the people with the highest incomes, as the top 1 percent of households would get a 17.5 percent increase in after-tax income from tax cuts averaging $275,257, compared with 7.1 percent for the entire population.

Clinton offers a host of targeted tax policies, composed mostly of tax increases on high-income households and narrow incentives for businesses that share profits with their workers or have apprenticeship programs. She would also create new tax breaks for caregivers and out-of-pocket healthcare costs.

She would increase capital gains rates on assets held between one and six years to encourage longer-term investing and she would impose tougher restrictions on companies seeking to move their addresses out of the country and cut their tax bills.

She would cap deductions for high-
income earners, impose a 30 percent minimum effective tax rate on households making at least $2 million a year and create a 4 percent surtax on income over $5 million.

Clinton has also left significant gaps in her tax plan. She has pledged to use “business tax reform” to pay for $275 billion in infrastructure spending, but she hasn’t said how she would do that or whether she backs President Obama’s plan to cut the corporate tax rate. She also has promised a middle-class tax cut but hasn’t yet offered specifics.