The Republican and Democratic presidential candidates will share their economic plans this week in Detroit. Donald Trump will repeat his plans to cut the corporate tax rate to 15 percent and unveil a revised economic plan in a speech today. Trump adviser and Heritage Foundation chief economist Stephen Moore says that Trump has reduced the cost of his plan to $3 trillion in lost revenue, though he did not specify a timeline. On Thursday, Hillary Clinton plans to show how her plan contrasts with Trump’s.
Speaking of corporate tax changes… TPC’s Eric Toder and the American Enterprise Institute’s Alan Viard penned an op-ed for US News & World Report that charts a way forward for corporate tax reform. They would cut the corporate tax rate to 15 percent and replace lost revenue with higher taxes on worldwide investment income of US shareholders. Dividends and capital gains would be taxed as ordinary income, and capital gains would be taxed every year, whether or not the stock is sold. If a stock’s price falls, the capital loss would be deductible. And American shareholders could claim a tax credit for their share of US income taxes paid by US firms in which they own stock.
In the meantime, if you can’t beat ‘em, sue ‘em? The US Chamber of Commerce has filed a lawsuit against the US Treasury. The Chamber, based in Texas, and the Texas Association of Business want to block Treasury’s latest efforts to curb corporate inversions. Treasury’s multiple acquisitions rule targets serial inverters with its. The Chamber claims that Treasury circumvented both Congress and public comments in setting the rules, which forces companies to endure a “regulatory disability.”
And don’t hack ‘em, either. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange says he was only kidding when he said his group was trying to hack into Donald Trump’s tax returns. That said, Tax Analysts Joseph Thorndike reminds us that “Unless [those tax returns] are made public, Americans are faced with voting against someone whose business interests are almost entirely opaque.”
Saving—and stabilizing—for a rainy day… The Center for American Progress argues in a new paper by Harry Stein and Laura Pontari that state rainy day funds, coupled with progressive taxation, can help stabilize state economies. Says Stein, “Rainy day funds can save surplus revenues from progressive taxes during good times, in order to prevent budget shortfalls during bad times when revenue collections are lower.”
In case you missed them on TaxVox… TPC’s Len Burman explains why Congress shouldn’t be making the IRS Commissioner’s job so difficult. You can view the wide gulf between the tax plan Donald Trump has proposed this year and and the one Mitt Romney offered four years ago. And in this election season, the Tax Hound examines how one’s views on tax policy might be overpowered by words.
Congress is recess. The Daily Deduction will post on Mondays until it resumes.
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