The Trump Tax Plan is a Giveaway to the Wealthiest Few – Plain and Simple

ACCORDING TO THE TAX POLICY CENTER: “THE TOP 1 PERCENT WOULD GET 80 PERCENT OF THE PLAN’S TAX CUTS”

President Trump has promoted the tax package, called the ‘Unified Framework for Fixing our Broken Tax Code,’ as an historically large tax cut for the middle-class and a tax increase for the highest-income households. The reality, however, is quite the opposite. … The disparity would grow over time. By 2027, the top 1 percent would get 80 percent of the plan’s tax cuts while the share for middle-income households would drop to about 5 percent. On average, taxes for the top 1 percent would fall by more than $200,000 or 8.7 percent of their after-tax incomes. The top 0.1 percent would do even better. They’d get an average tax cut of more than $1 million, a 9.7 percent boost in their after-tax incomes.” [Tax Policy Center, 9/29/17]

THE AMERICAN PEOPLE KNOW THE TRUMP TAX PLAN IS A GIVEAWAY TO THE WEALTHY

CBS News: Nation Tracker: Americans feel tax reform plans would favor wealthy

“Most Americans believe the current tax reform proposals would favor the wealthy, and they already believe the U.S. economic system as a whole is favors the wealthy.” According to the poll, 58% of Americans say that the plan would favor the wealthy – only 18% say the plan would benefit the middle class. [CBS News, 10/15/17]

THE TRUMP TAX PLAN EVEN ELIMINATES THE ESTATE TAX – EVEN TRUMP’S TREASURY SECRETARY ADMITS THAT “DISPROPORTIONATELY HELPS RICH PEOPLE.”

1. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin: 
STEPHANOPOLOUS: But eliminating the estate tax will only go to the wealthiest Americans, those that have estates greater than $11 million. 
MNUCHIN: Well, you are correct in that sense. And, again, we've been talking about the income tax system. As it relates to estate tax, you know, the death tax, we believe that people get taxed once and not twice. And that will enable them to keep lots of family businesses passed along. But the estate tax, you are correct. The majority of the estate tax is paid by the wealthy. [ABC’s This Week, 10/1/17; VIDEO]

2. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin: “It’s a philosophical issue, it’s an economic issue, and people who have family businesses should be able to pass them down, but obviously, the estate tax, I will concede, disproportionately helps rich people.” [Institute of International Finance, 10/14/17]

3. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin:
HARWOOD: If you look at the actual incidence of the estate tax, it falls heavily to a pretty small number of wealthy families.

MNUCHIN: It does. [CNBC, 5/23/17]

 Warren Buffett calls repealing the estate tax a “terrible mistake” “that’s not good for capitalism.”

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION IS USING FAKE MATH TO HIDE THE FACT THAT CORPORATE TAX CUTS OVERWHELMINGLY BENEFIT WEALTHIEST FEW

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: “The evidence indicates that most of the benefits from a corporate rate cut would go to those at the top, with only a small share flowing to low- and moderate-income families.  Mainstream estimates conclude that more than one-third of the benefit of corporate rate cuts flows to the top 1 percent of Americans, and 70 percent flows to the top fifth. Corporate rate cuts could even hurt most Americans since they must eventually be paid for with other tax increases or spending cuts.” [CBPP, 10/11/17]

Professor Kimberly Clausing, Reed College: “Research shows that corporate tax cuts are far more likely to end up in the hands of those at the top of the income distribution.” [Fact Check.Org, 9/7/17] 

WSJ: Treasury Removes Paper at Odds With Mnuchin’s Take on Corporate-Tax Cut’s Winners. “The Treasury Department has taken down a 2012 economic analysis that contradicts Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s argument that workers would benefit the most from a corporate income tax cut. The 2012 paper from the Office of Tax Analysis found that workers pay 18% of the corporate tax while owners of capital pay 82%. That is a breakdown in line with many economists’ views and close to estimates from the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation and Congressional Budget Office.” [WSJ, 9/28/17]

James Nunns, Tax Policy Center: “The Tax Policy Center assigns 80 percent of the corporate income tax burden to capital and only 20 percent to labor (workers’ wages and fringe benefits).” [Fact Check.Org, 9/7/17]