Trump releases new details of his tax plan

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Thursday released new details about his revised tax plan, building on the changes he has described in recent weeks.

The release of plan, which is described on a web page unveiled Thursday, came as Trump delivered a speech on jobs at the Economic Club of New York.

{mosads}”By lowering rates, streamlining deductions, and simplifying the process, we will add millions of new jobs,” he said in the speech. “In addition, because we have strongly capped deductions for the wealthy and closed special interest loopholes, the tax relief will be concentrated on the working and middle class taxpayer.” 

As Trump had mentioned in a speech in Detroit last month, his revised plan uses the individual tax rates of 12 percent, 25 percent and 33 percent that were included in the House Republicans’ plan. Trump’s plan states that for married couples, taxable income of less than $75,000 would be subject to the 12 percent rate, income between $75,000 and $225,000 would be subject to the 25 percent rate and income of more than $225,000 would be subject to the 33 percent rate.

Trump’s original tax plan, released last year, had individual tax rates of 10 percent, 20 percent and 25 percent. The top individual tax rate is now 39.6 percent.

His plan would increase the standard deduction for married couples from the current $12,600 to $30,000 and would eliminate personal exemptions.

The plan would cap itemized deductions at $100,000 for single filers and $200,000 for married couples filing jointly.

Trump has said he would repeal the estate tax, which he and other Republicans call the “death tax.” However, his plan would still tax capital gains held until death, though the first $10 million would be exempt. 

“To prevent abuse, contributions of appreciated assets into a private charity established by the decedent or the decedent’s relatives will be disallowed,” the plan states.

On the business side, Trump’s plan would lower the corporate tax rate from 35 to 15 percent.

The webpage makes no mention of lowering the tax rate to 15 percent for “pass-through” businesses whose income is taxed on their owners’ returns through the individual tax code. This was part of Trump’s original plan and has been criticized by Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Trump also said in the Detroit speech that “no American company will pay more than 15% of their business income in taxes.” 

In his Detroit speech, Trump had mentioned that businesses would be able to immediately expense their investments. The plan released Thursday specifies that manufacturers can elect to do so but would lose their ability to deduct their interest expenses.

Trump would do away with most corporate tax breaks other than the research and development tax credit.

The tax plan also details the child care proposals that the candidate discussed in a speech on Tuesday.

Alan Cole, an economist at the conservative-leaning Tax Foundation, said in a report Thursday that Trump’s revised plan is a sizable tax cut but that it would not cost nearly as much as Trump’s original plan. The Tax Foundation had estimated that Trump’s original plan would cost about $10 trillion over a decade after accounting for economic changes.