(Photo: Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images; Pacific Standard)
On now to the part of the debate every voter pretends to care about but no one really understands: taxes. Here’s a quick breakdown of the differences between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton’s tax plans, courtesy of Dwyer Gunn:
Trump’s tax plancalls for a simplification of the tax code, the elimination of a variety of loopholes, the elimination of the estate tax, a cap on the federal income tax rate (of 33 percent), and a ceiling on the corporate tax rate (of 15 percent).
None of this, it turns out, results in a tax code in which the wealthy pay their fair share.In September, the Tax Foundation, a right-leaning think tank, released an analysis of Trump’s current tax plan. It found (as the chart to the left illustrates) the benefits would overwhelmingly accrue to wealthier Americans. …
Clinton’s plan also calls for tax increases, but those increases will fall almost exclusively on top earners. An analysis of her plan by the left-leaning Tax Policy Center finds that low- and middle-income households will see a very small decline (less than 0.2 percent) in after-tax income (due to the effects of the plan on wages), while higher-income Americans will see their tax bills go up under the Clinton plan.
Put more simply, Trump’s plan would provide huge tax breaks for the richest Americans, and Clinton’s would raise taxes on high earners.
