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 In a news conference at Trump Tower in Manhattan, he announced a
plan promising populist measures, but at the same time handing a
huge tax break to corporate America.
Trump said he would cut the top tax rate for all businesses to 15
percent from the present 35 percent if he became president at the
November 2016 election.
"We have an amazing (tax) code. It will be simple, it will be easy,
it will be fair," he said of his plan, promising "major tax relief
for middle income and most other Americans."
Months after unexpectedly taking the lead in opinion polls for the
Republican nomination, the real estate mogul has seen his lead
narrow in recent days. He said taxes and the economy were "my
wheelhouse," meaning an area of expertise.
Although himself a billionaire entrepreneur, Trump is more willing
than other Republicans to use anti-corporate rhetoric. But his tax
plan also has a pro-business edge to it.
Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the conservative American Action
Forum think tank said it was unclear what the tax plan's overall aim
was.
 “I don’t know what this is about,” said Holtz-Eakin, a former
economic adviser to President George W. Bush. “It’s full of
inconsistencies.”
Tax experts questioned Trump's assertion that the proposals would
not add to the nation's debt and deficit.
"With the detail we have here, it’s very difficult to see how his
plan will close enough loopholes and tax preferences to offset his
proposed tax cuts,” said Maya MacGuineas, head of the Campaign to
Fix the Debt advocacy group. FINANCIERS TARGETED
Trump said he would eliminate the "carried interest" loophole that
lets private equity and hedge fund managers pay a lower tax rate
than most other people. Hillary Clinton, front-runner to be the
Democratic nominee for president, has also targeted that loophole.
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Trump said some of the country's "leading scholars, economists and
tax experts" helped draw up his plan, but a campaign spokeswoman
would not give the names of his tax aides.
Trump vowed to eliminate the so-called death tax, formally known as
the estate tax, and to simplify voters' tax returns by reducing the
number of tax brackets for individuals to four from seven.
He said people earning less than $25,000 a year and married couples
under $50,000 a year would pay no income tax. That appeared to
strike a populist note, but many voters at those income levels
already do not pay federal income taxes.
The Tax Policy Center think tank, estimated in 2013 that 43 percent
of Americans, many of them elderly and poor, would pay no federal
income tax that year.
Trump said he would solve a longstanding problem with offshore
profits that U.S. companies park abroad, estimated by experts to be
worth at least $2.3 trillion, by imposing a one-off 10 percent tax.
(Additional reporting by Susan Heavey; Writing by Alistair Bell;
Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Bill Rigby)
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