by Ellis Baxter
In my years in business I have met Donald Trump
twice and he is as advertised; as I observed while walking, with him, through
one of his construction sites in Florida. He was speaking to everyone,
addressing many of them by their first name. Everyone is addressed by Mr. Trump;
I found him to be one of the most affable people I have ever met. His image is
direct and open to everyone! So I have to like him on that part. That the man
is very serious, creative and unreal smart is obvious. Trump has put together
some 400 companies ! And to my knowledge he has lost on 4 of them ! That is a
100 to one record.
As a presidential candidate I felt that he would be
too over the top. And I still think he is. But, the man is a person of action.
He brings in the best talent he can find and gets the project done no matter
what it is, and his history shows he does this in record time.
So ‘The Donald’ is running for President. And to the
shock of the establishment he is leading in the polls. The perceived wisdom was
that he would fail to deliver on policy. He offered up his plan on illegal
immigration and, agree or disagree, it was a comprehensive complete plan. He had
help on that plan from Senator Jeff Sessions. When he needs help he gets first
rate people.
Having that accomplished, he then said he would work
on taxes. this drew more fire and fodder from the Haute Monde in the
establishment and the media. And today: he delivered his tax plan and shock; the
conservative tax groups are all abuzz ... The Donald wrote the plan himself.
I believe we can learn a lot from this plan about
Mr. Trump. He sees the high tax rates costing the Government revenue. Overseas
corporate divisions, as a way to avoid double taxation; through the practice
called ‘corporate inversions’ [a reverse merger where the USA company, through
merger, avoids USA tax rates]. Mr. Trump calls his plan a ‘REFORM PLAN’ .. he
reduces the corporate rate to 15% at that rate no inversions will occur except
for companies trying to move to the USA!
The General Theory Plan: cuts the current 7 tax
brackets to 4 with the highest rate set at 25% down from 39.6%. The Donald cuts
the tax break for carried interest then places a levy [one time] of 10% on over
seas retained profits [held in cash] of U.S. Corporations [By my count I see
this as a $400 billion dollar tax wind fall] and more like double that as $ 4
Trillion dollars now held over seas comes home ! This is a zero cost stimulus
plan ! Trump thinks 5 steps ahead on everything.
The plan eliminates federal income tax for workers
making less than $25,000.00 a year. A couple is free to $50,000 There is some
requirement to send in a one page form to the IRS stating “I Win”.
Above the $50,000 couple rate [$25.000 single] the
rate is 10% to $100,001, from there to $ 300,000 would pay 20% [$150,000 if
single] and above that the rate goes to 25% with most deductions being removed.
We do not yet have Trump’s the ideas codified. Nor do we have the list of items
he will call to be cut from the budget. I do believe that list of cuts will soon
follow. So details are not as refined as I would like.
The plan ends the marriage penalty, the death tax,
and the alternative minimum tax which Mr. Trump says hurts the middle class. His
simplification of the tax code keeps mortgage interest and charitable deductions
but cuts special interest plans and most of the loose deductions for the top
bracket.
This is a good plan. While I would prefer the FAIR
TAX Plan, which ends the IRS so criminal actions like those of Louis Lerner, a
person who did not see her office as one of service but one of a political
nature where her party, her union and her ideology was used to keep opposing
political groups down and out of the 2012 election.
So we have Jeb Bush’s finance plan [higher rates
than Trump’s], and Mr. Trump’s plan, Mr. Huckabee is for the Fair Tax, Rand Paul
wants a flat tax at a 14.5% rate [very short on details] ... we await the others
.. but the first round of conservative and anti-tax folks are happy with Mr.
Trump’s plan. And all believe that Donald Trump can sell this plan! With a
lifetime of study on the subject of taxes, as a general theory plan I have to
admit this is a damn fine start. The Canary in the coal mine is the mainstream
media. If churn up the hatred for the plan, it is probably a home run. The
media will hate it my guess...
