2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumHillary Clinton And Tax Complification
So, as it turns out, the big debate tonight is not exactly between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. There are three other candidates. Podium order is determined by putting the front-runner Hillary Clinton in the center flanked by those closest to her in the polls Sanders and Martin OMalley and the long shots- Jim Webb and Lincoln Chafee at opposite ends of the line. . .
We are still waiting on the Sanders tax plan, but his campaign sent me a paper titled Real Tax Reform Means Making The Wealthy and Large Corporations Pay their Fair Share -no more deferring corporate profits offshore, no more inversions, lower threshold and higher rates for the estate tax, a financial transactions tax, eliminating cap on social security earnings, no more special rates for capital gains and dividends-. I got into it here.
The other Sanders shoe Im waiting to hear drop is marginal income tax rates. If he really wants to mix everybody up, hell propose dropping the top marginal rate to 35% and explain to people that when he is talking about the rich, he doesnt mean a surgeon who is making $450,000 per year. . .
That leaves Hillary Clinton. I cant find a comprehensive plan from her, but the bread crumbs she has been dropping indicate that when one comes out it will be a doozy. Something tells me that she wont be able to talk with a straight face about how long and complicated the Code is, although I bet she has people on her team who actually know how long the Code is and wouldnt exaggerate its length by a factor of 30 or so like Jeb Bush did.
I found four proposals that Hillary has floated, all of which are indicative of the view that the economy can be micromanaged with tax provisions, which is the main reason the Internal Code is longer than it needs to be. ( The Code needs to be longer than the three pages Carly Fiorina thinks are required because there is inherent complexity in taxing income and an arms race between people coming up with clever ideas and legislators making it clear those gimmicks dont work) (See Reillys Third Law of Tax Planning) . . .
Conclusion
There is a lot more to hear about tax policy from the Democratic candidates. Im hoping to learn more about the three lower tier candidates. There is nothing really surprising about any of the Sanders proposals. The suspense is around marginal rates. And it is really clear that a vote for Hillary Clinton is not a vote for tax simplification.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterjreilly/2015/10/13/hillary-clinton-and-tax-complification/
djean111
(14,255 posts)and take advantage of it. And lobby for special favorable treatment added into the code.
That's the bottom line, right there.
bumprstickr
(74 posts)lawyers and accountants can find loopholes. No surprise.
Under Eisenhower, the top marginal rate was 91%. There were no billionaires and the country was better off.