Tax Policy

This debate will be a comparison of the "Bernie Sanders" and "Donald Trump" tax plans. I will be arguing that the Trump plan is superior to the Bernie plan. My opponent, ScryMind will argue the opposite (Pro Bernie plan). The first round is for acceptance and agreement of the terms of the debate. For the purpose of this debate the Bernie sanders tax plan is as follows: https://taxfoundation.org... The Bernie tax policy will accomplish these goals (among others): ""Adds four new income tax brackets for high-income households, with rates of 37 percent, 43 percent, 48 percent, and 52 percent. "Taxes capital gains and dividends at ordinary income rates for households with income over $250,000. "Creates a new 2.2 percent "income-based [health care] premium paid by households." This is equivalent to increasing all tax bracket rates by 2.2 percentage points, and would raise the top marginal income tax rate to 54.2 percent. "Eliminates the alternative minimum tax. "Eliminates the personal exemption phase-out (PEP) and the Pease limitation on itemized deductions. "Limits the value of additional itemized deductions to 28 percent for households with income over $250,000. Payroll Tax Changes "Creates a new 6.2 percent employer-side payroll tax on all wages and salaries. This is referred to by the campaign as an "income-based health care premium paid by employers." "Creates a 0.2 percent employer-side payroll tax and 0.2 percent employee-side payroll tax, to fund a new family and medical leave trust fund. "Applies the Social Security payroll tax to earnings over $250,000, a threshold which is not indexed for wage inflation. Business Income Tax Changes "Eliminates several business tax provisions involving oil, gas, and coal companies. "Ends the deferral of income from controlled foreign subsidiaries.* "Changes several international tax rules to curb corporate inversions and limit use of the foreign tax credit.* Estate Tax Changes "Decreases the estate tax exclusion from $5.4 million to $3.5 million. "Raises the estate tax rate from 40 percent to a set of rates ranging between 45 percent and 65 percent. "Changes several estate tax rules involving asset valuation, family trusts, gift taxes, and farmland and conservation easements.* Other Changes "Creates a financial transactions tax on the value of stocks, bonds, derivatives, and other financial assets traded by U.S. persons. The rate of the tax ranges from 0.005 percent to 0.5 percent, depending on the type of asset.* "Limits like-kind exchanges of property to $1 million per taxpayer per year and prohibits the use of like-kind exchanges for art and collectibles.* " For the purpose of this debate the Trump tax plan is as follows - https://assets.donaldjtrump.com... As a brief overview the Trump tax plan will accomplish these goals (among others): " 1. If you are single and earn less than $25,000, or married and jointly earn less than $50,000, you will not owe any income tax. That removes nearly 75 million households " over 50% " from the income tax rolls. They get a new one page form to send the IRS saying, "I win," those who would otherwise owe income taxes will save an average of nearly $1,000 each. 2. All other Americans will get a simpler tax code with four brackets " 0%, 10%, 20% and 25% " instead of the current seven. This new tax code eliminates the marriage penalty and the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) while providing the lowest tax rate since before World War II. 3. No business of any size, from a Fortune 500 to a mom and pop shop to a freelancer living job to job, will pay more than 15% of their business income in taxes. This lower rate makes corporate inversions unnecessary by making America"s tax rate one of the best in the world. 4. No family will have to pay the death tax. You earned and saved that money for your family, not the government. You paid taxes on it when you earned it. "