Trump has altered his tax plans since last year, when economists said his initial proposal would carry a 10-year revenue cost of roughly $10 trillion. The latest version would give fewer benefits to the middle class compared with his original plan, the Tax Foundation’s analysis found.

Trump’s earlier plan offered workers who rank in the middle quintile -- that is, between 40 percent and 60 percent -- in terms of income roughly 6 percent more after-tax income than they receive currently, the analysis said. The new plan offers them only 1.3 percent more after-tax income, according to the analysis.

1 Percent

By comparison, the top 1 percent of income earners would have seen a 20.7 percent increase in their after-tax income under Trump’s original plan; the new plan would provide an increase of either 10.2 percent or 16 percent -- depending on how pass-throughs are taxed. The bottom 20 percent of earners would fare better under the new plan -- they’d receive a 1.2 percent boost in their after-tax incomes, up from 0.7 percent originally -- due to a childcare tax benefit Trump added to his plan this month.

While campaigns routinely tweak their policy proposals, they typically do so behind the scenes through internal deliberations before disclosing a formal, published plan. Trump’s campaign instead stirred a weekend full of confusion among policy analysts regarding its pass-through plan.

‘Coherent Proposal’

“You need a bunch of smart, experienced tax people thinking these things through and talking to practitioners on the ground,” said Michael Knoll, a tax law and tax policy expert at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He added: “That didn’t appear to be happening.”

Until the campaign provides more detail, it’s not clear how businesses should respond, Knoll said.

“It’s hard right now to say how much they’re trying to come up with a coherent proposal, as opposed to a politically palatable one,” he said.

Cole, the Tax Foundation economist, posted a note to the group’s website Monday explaining why the group had to issue a range of estimates for Trump’s plan.