“Believe me.”
That’s what President Donald Trump told supporters at a September 27 event in Indiana, referring to how much he stood to lose under the Republican tax plan that ultimately passed the House of Representatives on Thursday 227 to 205.
“My accountant called me and said ‘you’re going to get killed in this bill,’” Trump told a group of Democratic senators in a phone call.
Well, should we believe him this time?
Only if “getting killed” means raking in a billion-dollar windfall.
That is according to an NBC News analysis, based on the only existing tax return Trump released from 2005.
Based on the analysis, referring only to the 2005 tax return, Trump stands to benefit personally by more than $20 million; his heirs, $1.1 billion.
In reality, it’s impossible to know how much the tax overhaul will affect the president’s family since Trump still refuses to release his tax returns, a standard every Republican nominee in the past nine presidential elections has upheld.
The House bill repeals the Alternative Minimum Tax, the only tax Trump paid in 2005.
For this reason, the House legislation would save the Trumps more than $31 million.
Maury Cartine, a tax expert at Marcum LLP, a national accounting and advisory firm, confirmed:
“The repeal of the Alternative Minimum Tax would result in an initial federal income tax savings of $31,261,179,”
Cartine added the current capital-gains tax is higher today than it was in 2005. Add that to the tax on investment income, eliminate of some itemized deductions, and the $31 million savings drops to $22.6 million.
But consider the bill’s call to repeal the federal estate tax by 2024.
Currently, heirs of estates worth above $5.5 million for an individual and $11 million for a married couple must pay a 40 percent tax.
Cartine said:
“Provided that Donald and Melania are still living at that time, the combined estates of Donald Trump and [his wife] will save $400 million of federal estate tax for every billion dollars of net assets.”
Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index estimates Trump’s net worth at $2.86 billion.
He claims more.
Due to a lack of information from Trump’s 2005 tax return, Cartine claims it is unclear how much limiting the tax rate on business income to 25 percent, another major component of the House bill, would affect him.
Of that return, Cartine said:
“While the payment of substantial self-employment tax may be indicative of ‘qualified business income,’ the information reported on pages 1 and 2 of the 2005 Form 1040 are not sufficient to permit any conclusions one way or the other.”
Cartine is not the only tax professional weighing in.
The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center reported that while taxes would be reduced on average by nearly $1,000 by 2027, the top one percent of all taxpayers would enjoy a more than $62,000 tax cut; the top 0.1 percent, $320,000.
After Republicans first introduced their tax proposal in September, the New York Times estimated the Trump family could save more than $1 billion under it.
So, this is “getting killed?”
Think of what it does for the rest of us, then.
Image credit: cgi.money.cnn.com
