GOP/TAXES/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “A sweeping Republican plan to overhaul the U.S. tax code proposes to sharply reduce tax rates on businesses and many individuals, kicking off an effort by President Donald Trump and congressional leaders to build momentum for a challenging legislative push in the months ahead.
The plan calls for a 20% corporate tax rate, down from 35% today. Other businesses, which pay their taxes through the individual returns of their owners, would get a 25% top rate with unspecified rules that would prevent some wealthy business owners from paying that rate on what is considered wage income.
The individual tax rates would be set at 12%, 25% and 35%, with the option of a fourth higher rate on the highest-income households, collapsing the individual tax structure from the current seven brackets to three or four. The plan would repeal the estate tax and provide a one-time tax on U.S. companies’ stockpiled foreign earnings.
The framework is designed to make the tax system simpler by repealing the alternative minimum tax and nearly doubling the standard deduction to $12,000 for individuals and $24,000 for married couples. The child tax credit would also be increased while personal exemptions would be repealed…
Plenty of work remains as Republicans try to turn their ideas into law over the next few months. The detailed work will happen in the tax-writing committees in Congress, where Republicans have narrow margins, while interest groups that would lose cherished tax breaks are already fighting back.”
-Richard Rubin, “GOP Tax Overhaul Aims for Corporate Cuts, Simpler Code,” The Wall Street Journal online, Sept. 27, 2017 10:44am