Trump has released his outline for tax reform and the mainstream are going google nuts! They are absolutely convinced that this is a wealthy tax reform that will plunge revenues into the twalette!! The highest tax bracket of 40% will be reduced to 35% and this will decimate the Federal government pockets. OMGosh.

Really?

Because according to the IRS, in 2015 (latest year available), the average tax rate for the 1%ers was just barely over 27% although they still picked up about 38% of all income taxes. The top 50% of taxpayers had an average tax rate just under 15%. And the bottom 50% paid a meager 3.3% in taxes on average and only represented 2.78% share of all taxes collected.  Well how do ya like that!  This aligns rather well with Trump’s plan, unless you are an overpaid tax preparer, an IRS employee, or a Pundit.

One decrier of the plan is Bill Maher, a comedian with a degree in English and History. I suppose that qualifies him to evaluate and analyze finance? Another critic, Ryan Struyk of ABC quoted the ‘bipartisan’ Committee For Responsible Federal Budget.  

It’s current President, Maya MacGuiness, whose background bio includes such media notables as Washington Post, New York Times, The Atlantic, Financial Times and LA Times – all bellwether diehard Liberal organizations, is predictable. In addition, she held a post at the Brookings Institute, another Liberal organization. Hard to classify as ‘nonpartisan’.

The Board is weighted heavily with democrats, including Leon Panetta, Charles Schultz, Robert Strauss, etc… And formerly associated with the New America Foundation, a Soros supported organization. They took a special interest in Obama and McCain in 2008… lauding their budget campaigns. In other words, it is hardly the most reliable in terms of ‘nonpartisanship’.

For the lower 50% tax filers, the greatest advantage is increasing the standard deduction which effectively makes the first $24000 of revenue nontaxable taking a hefty stresser off the table. Critics of the plan continue the same rhetoric as always without ever understanding the main punch – lower tax rates mean more income will flow back into the US instead of ending up in the Caymans, Bahamas, Cyprus and all the other tax havens that wealthy taxpayers enjoy – including Hollywood elitists.

Another ‘nonpartisan’ organization offering their opinion is the Urban Brookings Tax Policy Center whose current President Mark Mazur was an Obama appointee as Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy. The previous president, Leonard Burman, worked in the Bill Clinton White House.  Funding comes from Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation and Gates Foundation…Sigh…Gee REALLY?  All quite Liberal.

I think a part of the failure of the analyses is that it comes from people making tons of money, they don’t understand the mentality of someone making just enough to pay the bills, and can’t predict that reaction. In contrast, failing to take into account the offshore money is very short-sighted. Failing to look at the sources of tax revenue historically, is also short-sighted.

Failing to check your SOURCES – is also pretty critical.

According to the Liberal MSM, The New York Times, The Cayman Islands hold $1.9 trillion in US dollars on deposit. The Swiss hold $3 trillion in Swiss francs. IBC’s and trusts account for trillions. In fact, it has been estimated that between a third and a half of all the wealth of the world’s high net worth individuals is sitting in offshore accounts. Why?

Taxes.  And its not coming back unless there is an incentive.  Pretty basic economics.

The other half of Trump’s tax plan affects businesses by cutting the rate from a top tier of 39.6% to just 15%. Ultimately this will encourage spending, additional hiring, and raises. It won’t happen overnight. But this effect could be the biggest equalizer encouragement. The effect of lowering tax rates has been proven over and over again as an economic stimulus.

In this instance it has the added bonus of encouraging large corporations who have offshored their headquarters to tax haven countries, to relocate back to the US.  Despite all the analyses, this one equalizer has not been utilized in making predictions.  Why?  Because it hasn’t happened.  Corporations keep moving away – they don’t come back unless they have that diehard gravity – incentive!

Again, this will take time to implement in terms of feeding the economy, but the measures could sharpen the revenue stream significantly.

While some Republicans eagerly proffer negative reviews claiming the tax reform will not ‘blow holes in the deficit’, they seem to miss the point that – THAT is NOT the Point. It is as though the search for a negative no matter how forlorn, far-fetched, ambiguous, destructive, or just plain ridiculous, is the only agenda.

It’s an ego war.  ‘Well I didn’t think of it, so therefore it probably won’t work…’

Even more telling:   How can these in-depth, analysis Committees and policy groups and pundits release their ‘in-depth analysis and criticism’ one day after the outline is made public?   Because in the real world, such analyses typically take months, if not years, in government circles. They require complete knowledge of the entire plan, not just an outline, as Trump provided. They require multiple experts plugging in numbers, ratifying data, creating algorithms, and then fixing all the inevitable mistakes they have made, resubmitting left out data, and creating new templates.

But then it wouldn’t make for good Entertainment and media mania…