You know who would benefit a lot from Trump's tax plan? Donald Trump.
The tax plan President Trump unveiled on Wednesday is really only a single page of bullet points, but it's already pretty clear that a big beneficiary of the proposals would be super-wealthy chieftains of private real estate empires who have children. One big winner from the proposals would be "pass-through" businesses like the Trump Organization and its hundreds of subsidiaries, where owners file business income on their individual returns — depending on how the law is written, such business owners could pay a 15 percent tax rate instead of an individual rate of up to 35 percent. "Trump is the king of pass-throughs," said Steven Rosenthal at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. "He has pass-through businesses everywhere."
Trump's proposal would also eliminate the estate tax and the alternative minimum tax, and the push to reduce or eliminate taxes on profits that U.S. businesses earn overseas would be a boon for the golf courses and hotels the Trump Organization owns or licenses around the world. "Commercial real estate businesses like those controlled by the Trump Organization stand to benefit greatly," too, The Wall Street Journal says, with one provision slashing "tax rates for many property businesses by more than half."
In fact, "it is striking how many of the categories listed above affect the president and his family," says Neil Irwin at The New York Times. "He is a high-income earner. He receives income from 564 business entities, according to his financial disclosure form, and could take advantage of the low rate on 'pass-through' companies. According to his leaked 2005 tax return, he paid an extra $31 million because of the alternative minimum tax that he seeks to eliminate. And his heirs could eventually enjoy his enormous assets tax-free."
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Of course the precise amount Trump and his businesses (now held in trust) would save "couldn't be determined because he has declined to release his tax returns," The Wall Street Journal notes. "Still, from what is known about how his businesses are structured, experts estimate the savings would be in the tens of millions of dollars" a year. On Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said flatly that Trump has "no intention" of releasing his tax returns, arguing that "the American population has plenty of information."
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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
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