Taxes | 2016 Democratic Presidential Candidates
What do the Democratic Candidates Believe About Taxes / Economic Plans?
Hillary Clinton: Taxes=raise Tax Code=IRS
“I want to go even further, because Warren is 100 percent right, as usual,” Clinton said at a rally in Omaha, Nebraska that featured a public endorsement from Buffett, the famed investor and one of the wealthiest people in America. “I want to be the president for the struggling, the striving and the successful.”
Introducing Clinton, Buffett offered a litany of statistics describing a growing chasm between the nation’s rich and poor, lamenting, “millions and millions and millions of Americans have been left behind.” Buffett was the namesake for the push by the Obama administration to seek a tax rate of 30 percent on those earning $1 million or more…
Republicans sought to brand her as a tax-and-spend liberal, unsympathetic to the economic pains of everyday American families.
“Hillary Clinton’s economic agenda is more about redistribution than growth,” said Republican National committee spokesman Michael Short, in a statement. “Campaigning with the third richest person on the planet is an odd way to communicate that she understands and cares about the needs of millions of Americans.”…
…Clinton to propose further tax increases on wealthy Americans at Buffett event
The campaign official said Clinton will not specify elements of the expanded Buffett rule on Wednesday. Nor will she signal whether details of her tax plan coming in January will include an increase in the top personal income tax rate of 39.6 percent. In his 2013 “fiscal cliff” tax deal with Republicans in Congress, President Barack Obama returned the top rate to that level — which matched the top rate at the end of the term of Clinton’s husband, President Bill Clinton.
According to the conservative Tax Foundation, closing the gap between Clinton’s proposed spending and her tax proposals by raising the top rate alone would require at least a 4-percentage-point increase to 43.6 percent. Foundation President Scott Hodge said each percentage-point increase would raise approximately $100 billion over 10 years on a “static” basis without accounting for shifts in economic behavior…
Raises rates on medium-term capital gains (investments held for less than six years) to between 24% and 39.6%.
http://taxfoundation.org/comparing-2016-presidential-tax-reform-proposals
http://time.com/3969682/hillary-clinton-tax-capital-gains/
Hillary Clinton’s tax plan would be ‘devastating’: critics
Almost doubling short-term capital-gains tax rates — recently proposed by presidential candidate Hillary Clinton — would hurt the economy because investment taxes are already excessive, critics say.
“Her proposal would have a devastating effect on capital formation. She is absolutely out to lunch,” says Arthur Laffer, a Reagan administration supply-side economist.
The Clinton plan calls for the tax rate on short-term capital gains — the sale of properties held for less than two years — from the current average of 28.6 percent to 39.6 percent on high-income earners.
“The mainstream of economists want growth. That means there should be less taxes on investments,” says Mark Bloomfield, president of the American Council for Capital Formation.
“This could create economic stagnation as some people decide to hold on to investments for longer periods,” says Scott Ehrenpreis, a principal with Friedman LLP, heading its tax controversy group…
http://nypost.com/2015/08/01/hillary-clintons-tax-plan-would-be-devastating-critics/
Provide tax relief for families. Hillary will cut taxes for hard-working families to increase their take-home pay as they face rising costs from child care, health care, and sending their kids to college. She is calling for extending a tax cut of up to $2,500 per student to help deal with college costs as part of her New College Compact, and for cutting taxes for businesses that share profits with their employees.
Ensure more workers share in near-record corporate profits. Corporate profits are near record highs—but workers have not shared through rising wages. Profit sharing is linked to higher pay, benefits, and productivity. That’s why Hillary’s plan creates a 15 percent tax credit for companies that share profits with workers on top of wages and pay increases.
Raising the minimum wage and strengthening overtime rules. Hillary believes we are long overdue in raising the minimum wage. She has supported raising the federal minimum wage to $12, and believes that we should go further than the federal minimum through state and local efforts, and workers organizing and bargaining for higher wages, such as the Fight for 15 and recent efforts in Los Angeles and New York to raise their minimum wage to $15. She also supports the Obama administration’s expansion of overtime rules to millions more workers.
Reform our tax code so the wealthiest pay their fair share. Hillary supports ending the “carried interest” loophole, enacting the “Buffett Rule” that ensures no millionaire pays a lower effective tax rate than their secretary, and closing tax loopholes and expenditures that benefit the wealthiest taxpayers to pay for her plan to make college affordable and refinance student debt…
Absolutely no tax increase on people earning under $250K. (Apr 2008)
Perhaps raise capital gains tax, but at most to 20%. (Apr 2008)
Rescind tax cuts for those making more than $250,000 a year. (Feb 2008)
AdWatch: cut taxes for the middle class. (Feb 2008)
Wealthy should go back to paying pre-Bush tax rates. (Jan 2008)
Want to restore the tax rates we had in the ‘90s. (Dec 2007)
Freeze estate tax at 2009 level of $7 million per couple. (Oct 2007)
Why cut off payroll contribution at $95,000? (Jun 2007)
Cut alternative minimum tax, not billionaire tax cuts. (Mar 2007)
Expand child tax credit for child’s first year. (Dec 2006)
End Bush tax cuts;take things away from rich for common good. (Oct 2006)
To get America back on track, cut short tax cuts. (Sep 2005)
Social issues matter; wrong time for tax cuts. (Nov 2000)
NY share of federal taxes is too high. (Feb 2000)
GOP tax plan would hurt New York’s students. (Aug 1999)
Voting Record
Just Say No to GOP tax plan. (Sep 1999)
Voted YES on increasing tax rate for people earning over $1 million. (Mar 2008)
Voted NO on allowing AMT reduction without budget offset. (Mar 2008)
Voted NO on raising the Death Tax exemption to $5M from $1M. (Feb 2008)
Voted NO on repealing the Alternative Minimum Tax. (Mar 2007)
Voted NO on raising estate tax exemption to $5 million. (Mar 2007)
Voted NO on supporting permanence of estate tax cuts. (Aug 2006)
Voted NO on permanently repealing the `death tax`. (Jun 2006)
Voted YES on $47B for military by repealing capital gains tax cut. (Feb 2006)
Voted YES on retaining reduced taxes on capital gains & dividends. (Feb 2006)
Voted YES on extending the tax cuts on capital gains and dividends. (Nov 2005)
Voted NO on $350 billion in tax breaks over 11 years. (May 2003)
Voted YES on reducing marriage penalty instead of cutting top tax rates. (May 2001)
Voted YES on increasing tax deductions for college tuition. (May 2001)
Rated 21% by NTU, indicating a “Big Spender” on tax votes. (Dec 2003)
Rated 80% by the CTJ, indicating support of progressive taxation. (Dec 2006)
http://www.ontheissues.org/Hillary_Clinton.htm#Tax_Reform
31 full quotes from Hillary Clinton on tax reform
http://www.ontheissues.org/2016/Hillary_Clinton_Tax_Reform.htm
Hillary Clinton’s income tax plan as a 2016 presidential candidate has not been released to the public to date.
Bernie Sanders: Taxes= Raise Tax Code=IRS
Free college and healthcare for all – how would Bernie Sanders pay for it?
Sanders has laid out certain proposals, along with how he’d pay for them. But he’s remained mum on what could be the costliest: universal health care.
Also, only some of his tax revenue estimates have been confirmed by government agencies and well-known think tanks. Some tax policy experts question how much you can really squeeze from the upper crust and corporations.
For instance, increasing the top income tax rate to 50%, from the current 39.6%, would only bring in an additional $96 billion in tax revenue, according to a recent analysis by the Brookings Institution. (Sanders has not suggested raising the top rate.)
“You could get more from the rich than we currently get, but it’s not a bottomless pot,” said Roberton Williams, senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center. Increasing taxes on the wealthy might yield a couple of hundred billion more a year, he said.
Let’s look more specifically at Sanders’ College for All plan.
“I want Wall Street now to help kids in this country go to college, public colleges and universities, free with a Wall Street speculation tax,” Sanders said at Tuesday’s Democratic debate on CNN.
Here’s how it would work: The federal government would pay $2 in matching funds for every dollar states spend on making tuition free at public colleges and universities. Also, it would cut student loan interest rates to about 2% for undergraduates, and allow those with student debt to refinance at low rates. The pricetag: up to $750 billion over 10 years.
To pay for it, Sanders would impose a 0.5% fee on stock trades, 0.1% fee on bonds and a 0.005% fee on derivatives. This would raise up to $300 billion a year, according to Warren Gunnels, his policy director, citing a 2012 University of Massachusetts Amherst report.
But a Tax Policy Center report that looked at levying a 0.5% fee on stock trades — along with an average 0.5% fee on bonds and 0.05% fee on derivatives — found that it would only raise about $51 billion a year, said Steve Rosenthal, a Tax Policy Center senior fellow.
Gunnels called the center’s report “conservative.”
Another Sanders proposal is to invest $1 trillion over five years in infrastructure, which would not only repair roads and bridges but also put 13 million Americans to work. He’d fund it by making corporations pay taxes on the profits earned abroad or shifted offshore.
Under current law, a U.S. business would have to pay corporate taxes on profits it makes abroad only if it brings the money back to the United States. The company may take a foreign tax credit on its U.S. return for any taxes paid on those profits to another government. Gunnels pointed to a letter from a panel of 24 tax experts that said this policy costs the government $900 billion over a decade.
Sanders also wants to increase Social Security benefits and extend the entitlement’s lifespan by subjecting income above $250,000 to payroll tax. (The current payroll tax threshold is $118,500.)
And he would create 1 million jobs for disadvantaged youth — at a price tag of $5.5 billion — by taxing hedge fund managers’ profits at ordinary income tax rates. This tax proposal would bring in $15.6 billion over 10 years, according to the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.
It remains to be seen how Sanders would pay for Medicare for All, which could cost more than all his other programs combined. But he promises that middle- and lower-income Americans will pay less than they do now for private insurance.
“The wealthy will be asked to pay more in taxes,” Gunnels said.
Raising the minimum wage and strengthening overtime rules. Hillary believes we are long overdue in raising the minimum wage. She has supported raising the federal minimum wage to $12, and believes that we should go further than the federal minimum through state and local efforts, and workers organizing and bargaining for higher wages, such as the Fight for 15 and recent efforts in Los Angeles and New York to raise their minimum wage to $15. She also supports the Obama administration’s expansion of overtime rules to millions more workers.
Reform our tax code so the wealthiest pay their fair share. Hillary supports ending the “carried interest” loophole, enacting the “Buffett Rule” that ensures no millionaire pays a lower effective tax rate than their secretary, and closing tax loopholes and expenditures that benefit the wealthiest taxpayers to pay for her plan to make college affordable and refinance student debt…
Bernie Sanders’ tax plan as a 2016 presidential candidate has not been released to the public to date.