Trump has pitched his plan as a tax cut that will benefit middle-class taxpayers, but analyses have found that it would benefit those at the top of the income scale far more. Trump proposes to consolidate the existing seven individual income tax rates to just three, while cutting the rates across the board. The top rate would go from 39.6 percent to 33 percent.
Trump would more than double the standard deduction -- a benefit for the middle class, who are less likely to itemize deductions. But other changes he proposes -- repealing “head of household” filing status and personal exemptions -- would mean higher taxes for large families and single parents, according to an analysis by Lily Batchelder, a New York University law professor.
A married couple with three children making $50,000 a year would “face a tax increase of $450,” Batchelder wrote, and a single parent making $75,000 with two school-aged children and no child-care costs “would face tax increase of $2,440.”
While the Trump campaign labeled her analysis “pure fiction,” an economist at the right-leaning Tax Foundation has said “the results seem reasonable to me.”
Batchelder, a former tax specialist for President Barack Obama’s administration and the Senate Finance Committee, appeared at the Washington forum and asked Ross about her findings.
“You are incorrect that it raises taxes on the little people,” Ross responded. “There is no hardship on the people in the lower brackets.” But he also said that “there are some people at the margins that could be disadvantaged” and that Trump’s campaign will work with Congress to prevent that.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.